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COPENHAGEN (bdnews24.com/Reuters) - More than 190 countries are meeting in Copenhagen to agree the outlines of a new global deal to combat climate change, hoping to seal a full treaty next year to succeed the Kyoto Protocol. Following are key issues yet to be agreed, and some areas of possible agreement if draft texts are approved. ONE TREATY OR TWO? * No agreement yet on whether to extend Kyoto and add extra national commitments under a separate pact, or end Kyoto and agree one new treaty which specifies actions by most countries * Kyoto limits the emissions of nearly 40 industrialized countries from 2008-2012, but excludes the United States, the world's second biggest carbon emitter * A new climate deal should include climate action from many more countries, most negotiators agree LONG-TERM GOAL * No agreement yet on a long-term goal to avoid dangerous climate change * Developing nations prefer a goal to limit overall warming to 2 degrees Celsius rather than a target to halve global greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 -- which they are concerned may limit their economic growth if rich nations do not take enough of the burden. * A U.N.-drafted text suggests at least a halving of emissions by 2050. Countries have not voted on that text yet MID-TERM RICH NATION EMISSIONS CUTS * No agreement yet on how far individual rich countries should cut their emissions by 2020 versus 1990 levels * Industrialized nations have proposed bids which so far add up to cuts of about 14-18 percent * Developing nations including China are insisting on cuts of at least 40 percent * A U.N.-draft text suggests rich countries collectively cut emissions by at least 25-40 percent by 2020 CLIMATE ACTION BY DEVELOPING NATIONS * No agreement yet on how far poorer countries should commit to targets to curb growth in greenhouse gases * Developed countries want poorer countries to "stand behind" their targets through some kind of international inspection, which developing nations reject FINANCE * No agreement yet on how much rich nations should pay developing nations in the short or medium term to help them fight climate change * Rich nations have suggested about $10 billion per year from 2010-2012 which China and African nations have rejected as not enough * Developing nations have suggested figures of at least mid-term $200-$300 billion climate aid annually by 2020, compared with a European Union proposal of $150 billion EXCLUDED SECTORS, LOOPHOLES * No agreement on whether to include aviation and shipping, and make it mandatory to include farming and forestry in targets * Kyoto excludes greenhouse gases from aviation and shipping, responsible for at least 5 percent of global emissions * Under Kyoto it is voluntary for industrialized countries to include in their targets emissions from land use, including deforestation and farming * Combined, farms and deforestation account for a third of global greenhouse gases ROLE OF CARBON MARKETS * No agreement yet on how to scale up carbon finance, where rich nations pay for emissions cuts in developing countries through trade in carbon offsets * No agreement on how to streamline an existing scheme under Kyoto's clean development mechanism, which deployed $6.5 billion last year in developing nations. The European Union wants the scheme to invest tens of billions annually by 2020 * No agreement on whether to allow emissions cuts from new sectors to qualify for carbon offsets, including nuclear power, carbon capture and storage and conserving forests * A draft text proposed a larger scheme whereby whole sectors such as power generation could earn carbon credits, instead of individual projects such as wind farms FORESTRY * Mounting agreement on rewarding tropical countries which slow deforestation under a new deal * The latest draft text addressed key issues on looking after the interests of indigenous people but activists complain that has been moved out of a legally binding part of the text * Another issue is whether to allow plantations to earn carbon offsets if they are planted on former virgin forest land

Ottawa,Oct 06 (bdnews24.com/Reuters) - The first major opinion poll taken after Canada's election debates showed on Sunday that the ruling Conservatives were headed for a strengthened mandate but still would fall short of a majority of seats in Parliament. The Ekos survey put the Conservatives, led by Prime Minister Stephen Harper, at 35 percent and the Liberals back at 25 percent. The New Democratic Party (NDP), to the left of the Liberals, stood at 19 percent. Debates in French and English on Wednesday and Thursday respectively "appear to have failed to shake up the election race, despite what some regarded as effective performances by opposition party leaders," Ekos said late on Sunday. The automated telephone survey was conducted on Friday through Sunday. Another poll, a Nanos survey taken partly before the more widely watched English debate, had the Conservatives ahead by just 34 percent to 30 percent for the Liberals. The poll spanned Thursday through Saturday. The Liberals seized upon the fact that the leftist NDP, which had been doing so well that it had a shot at taking second place in the October 14 election, was 11 points behind in the Nanos survey at 19 percent. "Can someone tell me how in these numbers the NDP finishes second?" Liberal spokesman Jae Epworth asked in an e-mail. The Liberals and the NDP are closer in other polls, and the Liberals further behind the Conservatives, who took power from the Liberals with a minority of seats in Parliament in the January 2006 election. A Harris-Decima survey released on Sunday by Canadian Press that covered Wednesday through Saturday put the Conservatives also at 34 percent but the Liberals down at 24 percent and the NDP at 20 percent. In the 2006 election, the Conservatives got 36 percent of the popular vote, the Liberals 30 percent and the NDP 17.5 percent. When Parliament was dissolved on September 7, the Conservatives had 127 of the 308 seats, well short of the 155 needed for a majority. Harper has campaigned on the need for a steady hand in uncertain times, with no new taxes and no major new spending. The Liberals propose a new carbon tax to fight climate change, accompanied by income tax cuts and subsidies. The NDP want to cancel a corporate tax cut and spend more on housing and education. Ekos covered 2,318 decided voters, with a margin of error of 2 points 19 times out of 20. Nanos covered 1,029 committed voters, with a 3.1-point margin of error, while Harris interviewed 1,236 people with a 2.8-point margin of error.

A 20 percent cut in greenhouse gases by rich nations would be a "pretty good" result for a UN climate summit even though it falls short of developing nations' hopes, the head of the UN climate panel said on Tuesday. Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), said a US reduction offer of 3 percent below 1990 levels by 2020 made it hard to reach more ambitious cuts by 2020 for industrialised nations as a group. "If we can get something like that it would be a pretty good outcome," Pachauri told Reuters, when asked if he would be satisfied with cuts of 20 percent below 1990 levels by 2020 at a summit at the end of the Dec. 7-18 conference. Pachauri's panel in 2007 outlined a scenario of cuts of 25 to 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2020 to avoid the worst of climate change such as wildfires, droughts, floods and rising sea levels. An Indian citizen, Pachauri has often urged far tougher action by the rich, especially to help developing nations threatened by rising sea levels. Many developing nations want cuts of at least 40 percent, the toughest end of the IPCC range. But offers by recession-hit developed nations so far total about 14 to 18 percent below 1990 levels by 2020. Pachauri said it was now important to get a "forward-looking agreement" to be adjusted over time. He said he was giving a personal opinion and that negotiators would have to decide. OBAMA US President Barack Obama aims to come to Copenhagen for a closing summit. He has said he will offer a US cut of 3 percent below 1990 levels by 2020, or a reduction of 17 percent from 2005 levels after sharp rises in recent years. The United States is the only developed nation with no caps on emissions under the existing Kyoto Protocol. "I would hope that some of the other countries will fill the gap by doing a little more and perhaps get the Americans to move further," Pachauri said. Pachauri told a seminar that he hoped the IPCC would learn from a scandal over leaked emails from a British University that sceptics say raises questions about the IPCC's conclusions that mankind is causing global warming. "We have decided to look into this issue just to see if there are any lessons for us to take on board. That's not an investigation of anybody," he said. He said that the University of East Anglia and the police were making formal probes. He expressed sympathy for scientists expressing personal opinions critical of sceptics in internal mails. "There are times that I've said 'I'll murder so and so' but I don't carry out the act. These were friends ... expressing anger, expressing anguish and I think we should leave it at that. We often say things we don't mean."

Hundreds of climate demonstrators set up a tent camp next to London's Heathrow airport on Monday and threatened "direct action" at the world's busiest air hub to protest against global warming. Police with batons were on alert at the field where the camp is based, within one kilometre of the airport complex. The campaigners plan a week of activities they say will culminate on Sunday in 24 hours of "direct action" in a bid to force the government to halt the planned expansion of the airport, which they argue will exacerbate climate change. "The expansion of the airport just runs completely in the face of everything we know about climate change," said activist Tom James at the camp. "We are bringing totally unacceptable risks for future generations and people around the world." Organisers said "direct action" could involve a mass picnic in Sipson, a town slated for destruction if a third runway is built, and targeting of the offices of airport operator BAA, owned by Spain's Ferrovial. But they said the airport's perimeter fence would not be breached out of concerns for public safety. Banners urging a halt to airport expansion fluttered over the marquees and tents were being erected in the field as supplies of fruit and vegetables were brought in. Protesters ranged in age from pensioners to teenagers and children. The protest comes at the height of the holiday season at an airport that handles nearly 70 million passengers a year. Local resident Tom Creeden said the anti-expansion campaigners were fighting a losing battle: "It is progress and it is needed. You have got to have a bigger airport and it might as well be here as anywhere else." Scientists say air transport contributes heavily to global warming, noting that the carbon dioxide and water vapour emitted at altitude are four times more potent than at sea level. Police said around 250 protesters had arrived at the camp, just to the north of the airport and directly in line with the site of the proposed third runway. Up to 1,500 campaigners are expected to join the camp over the week. Police said extra officers had been drafted in. Commander Jo Kaye, who is coordinating the operation, said police were prepared should the demonstration turn unruly. "There is a wide range of groups here, some who say they won't disturb passengers at all," he said. "There will be some people who arrive to demonstrate who are perfectly prepared to break the law." But Kaye added that counter-terrorism operations at Heathrow were unaffected. "The picture doesn't change because there's a climate camp nearby," he said. "We're very, very used to policing this sort of thing." BAA was concerned about the potential for chaos because August is the busiest month for Heathrow's four terminals. "Around 1.5 million passengers are due to pass through Heathrow during the week of the climate camp, many of them families on their summer holidays," a BAA spokesman said. A spokeswoman for Prime Minister Gordon Brown said peaceful protest was a legitimate right but that any action to disrupt the operation of Heathrow would be "unacceptable".

To derive an answer, every aspect of Venus requires examination. That includes the way its face has metamorphosed over time. Earth has plate tectonics, the gradual migration of continent-size geologic jigsaw pieces on its surface — a game-changing sculptor that crafts an exuberance of diverse volcanoes, giant mountain ranges and vast ocean basins. Venus doesn’t have plate tectonics. But according to a study published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, it may possess a quirky variation of that process: Parts of its surface seem to be made up of blocks that have shifted and twisted about, contorting their surroundings as they went. These boogying blocks, thin and flat slices of rock referred to as campi (Latin for “fields”), can be as small as Ireland or as expansive as Alaska. They were found using data from NASA’s Magellan orbiter mission, the agency’s last foray to Venus. In the early 1990s, it used radar to peer through the planet’s obfuscating atmosphere and map the entire surface. Taking another look at these maps, scientists found 58 campi scattered throughout the planet’s lava-covered lowlands. These campi are bordered by lines of small mountain ranges and grooves, features that have also been warped and scarred over time. What made them? According to Paul Byrne, a planetary scientist at North Carolina State University and the study’s lead author, there is only one reasonable explanation: Essentially dragged around by the flowing mantle below, the campi “have been shimmying around the place, just like pack ice.” Campi moving toward immobile land would cause the ground to crumple up, forming mountains. One moving away would have stretched the land, opening grooves. And along these boundaries, campi moving side-to-side would have left strain marks and etchings. That this deformation took place in the lowlands of Venus is significant. The lava smothering them is anywhere between 750 and 150 million years old, making these landscapes some of the planet’s youngest. That means the tectonic two-step of these campi happened relatively recently in the solar system’s history. But is this dance still happening today? NASA’s VERITAS and Europe’s EnVision missions will find out. Equipped with their own advanced radar systems, these orbiters will examine these campi in high-resolution, allowing scientists to ascertain if any have shimmied about since the days of Magellan. If they have, then it will further evidence a long-harboured notion: Venus is tectonically active, if not as hyperactive or as dynamic as Earth. Long ago, Venus had an ocean’s worth of water, for potentially billions of years. This could have made plate tectonics possible, as liquid water permits plates to break, bend and flow. This process also regulates the climate by burying and erupting carbon, preventing worlds from undergoing runaway global warming that would render them uninhabitable. But one of several possible apocalypses — perhaps multiple volcanic cataclysms — turned Venus into an arid hellscape, and its plate tectonics would have shut down. Consequently, for the past billion years or so, the entire planet’s surface was a solitary, stagnant and largely static plate. But that doesn’t mean the planet has become quaver-free. Thanks to missions like Magellan, scientists have previously spotted fault networks, rift zones and mountain ridges — the scar tissue left by both ancient and somewhat more contemporary movement. If this new study is correct, and entire swaths of Venus have been recently jiggling about, then the planet’s surface “is more mobile than people have conventionally assumed,” said Joseph O’Rourke, a planetary scientist at Arizona State University who wasn’t involved with the work. Explaining why Venus has this surprising tectonic tempo would have hefty implications. There are countless Earth- and Venus-size worlds in the cosmos, and their tectonic activity will also determine their fates. But “we can’t claim to understand any rocky world in the solar system or beyond if we can’t understand Earth and its nearest neighbour,” O’Rourke said. Venus, and its myriad surprises, certainly isn’t making that task easy. © 2021 The New York Times Company

Fashion was so marginalised, in fact, that in order to talk about its role in creating, and fighting, climate change, it had to hold its own conference. And so the Copenhagen Fashion Summit, which focuses on sustainability, was born. It took more than a decade, but things have changed. There has been a lot of talk this year about financial bigwigs finally coming to the COP table, but this is the first year that fashion had a meaningful, extended presence. As Stella McCartney, who created a special “Future of Fashion” materials exhibition at the Kelvingrove Art Gallery said, after almost two decades of pushing fashion to acknowledge its effect on the environment, she was a “COP virgin” no longer. Here’s what else stuck with me from COP26. 1. There was plenty of official action. Smack in the middle of the Blue Zone (the official delegate area — that is, the one where world leaders spoke), there was an installation by a fashion collective called Generation of Waste made to mimic a bar chart of the various stages of textile waste, from design through raw materials, garment production and so on. The United Nations Environment Program released a new version of the fashion charter initially created in 2018, now with 130 signatory companies, including, for the first time, LVMH, and with stronger commitments to halve carbon emissions by 2030 (and reach net zero by 2050). On the fringe, Federico Marchetti, the former Yoox Net a Porter chairman, unveiled a digital ID created by the fashion task force of Prince Charles’ Sustainable Markets Initiative: a scannable garment tag that acts like a DNA trace for a product’s manufacturing history, using blockchain technology. And Textile Exchange, a non-governmental organisation that sounds like a fabric trading post but actually focuses on creating global standards in fashion, presented a trade policy request to national governments supported by 50 brands. That is an unsexy term for a plea to create tariff and import-export structures that incentivise companies to use “environmentally preferred materials” rather than, say, polyester. Which is, by the way, the most used material in the entire fashion industry. 2. A fake fact was finally abandoned. No one uttered the now discredited but formerly very popular “fashion is the second most polluting industry on the planet” fake stat. Everyone has finally agreed it’s one of the worst, and that’s plenty bad enough. 3. “Degrowth” is the word of the moment. Degrowth: meaning to make less product. Meaning the action taken in response to the fact that in the first 15 years of this century, clothing production doubled in volume, but the number of times a garment was worn before being thrown away decreased 36%. For a long time the response to this kind of data was to urge consumers to “buy less!” and “wear longer!” Now it seems that brands have owned up to their role in the problem. That said, it’s hard to imagine Bernard Arnault of LVMH or Ralph Lauren standing up at their annual shareholders meeting and announcing that their strategy for 2022 is “degrowth.” (It almost sounds like a potential “Saturday Night Live” skit.) Except that Halide Alagöz, the chief sustainability officer of Ralph Lauren, revealed during a New York Times Climate Hub panel that the brand had secretly been trying it out. Yup: Ralph Lauren has been practicing degrowth. Not that they call it that, exactly. The company calls it “financial growth through degrowth of resources,” according to Alagöz. Which is a terrible name for an interesting initiative, but Lauren is working on it. What it discovered was that it could decouple production from profits, so that even as the company made less stuff, it was able to make money — largely by maximising its understanding of sell-through. It ended up with less wasted product that had to be downstreamed to outlet stores. “We have seen our financials getting better although we produce less units compared to five years ago,” Alagöz said. 4. Resale becomes reuse. Designers are also getting creative when it comes to product that exists in the world. One of my favourite points came from William McDonough, an author of “Cradle to Cradle,” a sort of founding manifesto on the circular economy, who pointed out that we should think of garments as source materials that can be re-sourced for second and third use. This is exactly what British designer Priya Ahluwalia was thinking when she teamed up with Microsoft to create a platform called Circulate, which allows consumers to send their own used clothes to her company. If the clothes are in acceptable condition, they will get remade and incorporated into her next collection, and the donor will get “reward points” toward a new purchase with the brand. It’s a sourcing hack Ahluwalia said has opened up a whole new channel for fabric and ideas for her. 5. But watch out for “regenerative.” It’s a growing buzzword in fashion, thanks to regenerative agriculture, a farming technique that helps to restore soil health and nutrients. One of the less discussed aspects of fashion is just how intertwined it is with agriculture — many brands are now investing in supporting regenerative farming — but the word has jumped its tracks and filtered up to companies that boast about a “regenerative strategy” and “regenerative tactics,” which seems to mean … well, it's not clear what it means. But it sounds good, right? This is the sort of fuzzy language that can lead to charges of greenwashing, which is why Textile Exchange is working on a specific definition, out next year. Honestly, they could expand the definition to encompass a whole lexicon of fashion so everyone would be using the same language. For example, another word I bet we will hear more of comes courtesy of a McKinsey report: “nearshoring,” which is to say using suppliers that are not necessarily in your country but are not halfway around the world. After all, according to a presentation by British brand Bamford, the average merino wool sweater journeys 18,000 miles during its production cycle, from raw material to factory to atelier to shop. A project for COP27, perhaps. © 2021 The New York Times Company    

"It's a resource with a huge amount of potential," said Jude Cobbing, who led a new study for charities WaterAid, Earthwatch and WWF on how groundwater is managed in India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Nigeria and Ghana. Little is understood about how much groundwater is available, particularly at local level, and poor organisation between government agencies can mean it does not reach people effectively, said the independent water governance expert. "We value what we can see, not what we can't," he said. This can lead to "hydro-schizophrenia" among government officials and water planners, who often put a greater focus on managing visible surface water, he noted. Groundwater makes up about 30% of the planet's freshwater - nearly all that is not locked up in ice, scientists estimate. By comparison, surface sources - lakes, rivers, wetlands, soil, plants and the atmosphere - account for just 0.4% of global freshwater. The drying of underground aquifers due to excessive pumping is a well-known problem in some parts of the world, including the western United States and northern China, Cobbing said. But in some places - particularly sub-Saharan Africa - huge supplies of groundwater remain almost untapped and could help support communities hit by drought linked to climate change and other problems, the report said. In others, where groundwater is scarcer, it needs to be managed carefully so that it does not deplete, the study said. Globally, only about 8% of the groundwater that is available and could be replaced annually through natural recharge is pumped each year, the report said. Broader and smarter use of that water, where available, could help countries achieve a global goal to ensure everyone has sustainable access to water and sanitation by 2030, it said. Already, worsening drought and surface water shortages are driving a new focus on extracting groundwater, the report noted. The Southern African Development Community has set up an institute that is producing guidance on operating and maintaining groundwater extraction systems in the drought-hit region, said Cobbing, a hydrologist. The African Union also has a continent-wide body analysing groundwater and seeking to coordinate its use between member states, as well as integrating surface and groundwater management. Among countries, Sudan has a national groundwater ministry and Botswana has similarly made groundwater a growing priority, Cobbing noted. "Drought tends to concentrate minds," he said. But with responsibility for water falling across a range of government departments - including agriculture, public health, environment and industry - coordinating groundwater policies and use can be a challenge. SAFE WATER Keeping safe groundwater flowing through pumps in rural Bangladesh, for instance, requires everything from ensuring a reliable power supply to treating the often arsenic-laced water, Cobbing said. Bangladesh, a leader in climate change adaptation, has made big strides in dealing with many climate risks - but treating arsenic contamination, a public health threat that about affects 35 million people, has been a challenge for decades, he added. Filtering systems to tackle the problem are available, but getting them in place in remote regions with little political clout has proved a struggle, he said. "It's still thought of as a tech problem but it's actually an institutional and governance problem," he said. India, meanwhile, has a "relatively sophisticated" national groundwater management system, which produces annual figures on availability and quality, and coordinates efforts to recharge groundwater sources, the researcher said. But its national-level planning does not always filter down to the state and local level and what happens on the ground to track and manage water, he said. In Nepal and Nigeria, water records are often kept on paper or in digital formats that are hard to share and can leave governments "blindly making policies that are ill-informed", the report said. Without the right knowledge, governments might build roads or other infrastructure through spring-rich areas that recharge groundwater supplies or site a dump where it could pollute groundwater, the report said. And in places where groundwater is less abundant, ministries allocating it to farmers or industry - without considering other users - could lead to over-pumping and shortages. "Unless groundwater is protected, many communities risk not having enough water for their basic needs in the future, particularly as surface water sources may be altered through climate change," the report warned. Vincent Casey, a water security expert with WaterAid, said "the clock is ticking" on managing groundwater more effectively. "If efforts are not made to better understand, value and protect this vital resource, making it a central feature of climate change adaptation strategies, then we face a very bleak future," he predicted.

That hat-in-hand approach can now be put on hold. As bush fires have ravaged Australia, celebrities, business moguls and horrified people around the world have inundated the country’s fire services and other nonprofit organisations with tens of millions of dollars in donations. This outpouring has presented new challenges for a country more accustomed to handing out largesse to needier nations than to being the recipient of it. Suddenly, Australia has found itself trying to efficiently distribute huge sums of money and to decipher donors’ sometimes vague intentions. “This is a seminal moment in Australia when it comes to philanthropy and giving,” said Krystian Seibert, a fellow at the Centre for Social Impact at Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne. “I haven’t seen something like it before.” One after another, celebrities have announced large donations or money-collection efforts. A Facebook fundraiser for the New South Wales Rural Fire Service that was started by Australian comedian Celeste Barber has amassed $34 million, or 51 million Australian dollars. It is the largest fundraiser ever on the platform. Fire brigades have received money from Nicole Kidman and her husband, Keith Urban, as well as from Metallica and Kylie Jenner. Leonardo DiCaprio donated to wildlife organisations. Writers are auctioning off signed books, musicians are hosting concerts, and athletes like Serena Williams have pledged to direct their winnings to bush-fire relief. Susan Pulis, who runs a wildlife shelter, feeds kangaroos on Raymond Island in Australia, Jan 6, 2020. The New York Times Since September, the fires have incinerated an area about the size of West Virginia and at least 25 people have died. Ecologists have estimated that 1 billion animals have perished, with some species threatened to the point of extinction. At least 3,000 homes have been ravaged in dozens of towns, and the economic damage from the fires could be as much as $3.5 billion. Susan Pulis, who runs a wildlife shelter, feeds kangaroos on Raymond Island in Australia, Jan 6, 2020. The New York Times “We don’t normally get phone calls from people who want to give $1 million and beyond,” said Belinda Dimovski, the director of engagement at the Australian Red Cross. She said the organisation, which is providing disaster relief, had raised about $67 million from individuals, groups and companies since July 1. By comparison, it raised about $7.5 million during a drought appeal last year. The New South Wales Rural Fire Service has also seen a dramatic jump in giving, as the world has watched the courageous actions of Australian volunteers called on to fight monstrous blazes. In the period between mid-2017 and mid-2018, the fire service raised $525,000, and the largest single donation was about $17,000. Now, it is flush with the tens of millions of dollars it has received from the Facebook fundraiser and other sources. In the Facebook effort, Barber’s initial goal was to raise about $20,000 for a trust that helps fire brigades in New South Wales with equipment and other needs. “Please help anyway you can. This is terrifying,” she wrote in the appeal. As the funds have swelled to 1,700 times the original target, questions have been raised about whether the more than 1 million individual donors knew that they were contributing to a single state’s fire service. Legal experts said it would most likely be up to the Rural Fire Service, rather than Barber, to decide whether to distribute money to other organisations. It is a “nice challenge,” said the Rural Fire Service commissioner, Shane Fitzsimmons. He added that the organisation was considering sending money to funds benefiting victims of the blazes and to fire services in other states. “We will need to target the money to where people intended it to go,” he said. The donations received so far could be enough to fund state-supported fire services in New South Wales for decades. But that would not provide immediate disaster relief. “This money comes with expectations,” said Michael Eburn, an associate professor at the Australian National University who specialises in emergency management law. “It’s a dilemma.” The federal government has announced a $1.4 billion national wildfire recovery fund, and has offered a list of established charities holding bush-fire appeals. The state of Victoria has asked the public to donate to groups that provide “practical” relief. Australians affected by the fires said they were heartened to know that people at home and abroad had been moved to help. But some who have lost homes say they have received minimal compensation so far from government agencies and nonprofit organisations, though the federal government says it has been processing claims at record speeds. Informing potential donors about the causes they are considering and directing their assistance to the intended recipients are the biggest challenges in crisis relief, said Maurie Stack, chairman of the Stacks Law Firm, which deals with charity law. “To get the money to the people who need it, you really need boots on the ground,” he said. Stack is raising money himself for his Rotary Club in Taree, where more than 100 homes in the area have been lost to fires. The club has raised $220,000, far outpacing its goal of $30,000, he said. Over the past decade, Australians have been the fourth-most generous givers in the world, according to the 2019 Charities Aid Foundation World Giving Index. In recent weeks, Australians have flooded fire stations, town governments and nonprofit organisations with contributions of food, clothes and other goods. The groups are now imploring people not to send any more. The most efficient way to give during a disaster is to donate cash directly to charities, said Gary Johns, commissioner of the Australian Charities and Not-for-Profits Commission. “Think about what you want to support and give directly to a charity doing that work,” he said in a statement. Beyond the searing images of burning houses and singed wildlife, the attention that the wildfires have brought to the effects of climate change may be motivating people to donate. “We’ve been primed to do something about climate change,” said Matthew Sisco, a doctoral candidate and data scientist at Columbia University who does research on responses to climate change. “Now, this is an event linked directly to it and pulling at our heart strings.” Animals, too, have been a major focus of charitable donations. WIRES, a wildlife rescue group in New South Wales, raised $9.6 million in one fundraiser alone. “Kangaroos and koalas are highly charismatic,” Sisco said. “We can feel empathy for them” — a high predictor of charitable behaviour. The success of groups like WIRES, though, may have crowded out other organisations in need. By the time the crisis hit Victoria, the blazes had already raged in New South Wales, and international awareness of WIRES was high, said Megan Davidson, chief executive of Wildlife Victoria. Some people, she added, mistakenly viewed WIRES as a catchall for helping the nation’s animals. Her group has since worked to rectify that perception, and it has raised $4.8 million. “Everybody is competing for the donor dollar, and people want to donate because it makes them feel good,” said Eburn, the Australian National University professor. “It makes them feel like they are contributing — and they are.” © 2019 New York Times News Service

A Malaysian ruling party politician suggests that an electoral reform activist should be hanged. Mock funeral rites are held outside the home of an opposition state leader. Eggs and rocks rain down on a political rally. Malaysia is no stranger to political mud-slinging and scandal. But a ratcheting-up of inflammatory language and violence - much of it directed at the political opposition - has shocked even seasoned observers as the country heads for its most contentious and closest election by next April. "I worry that the election will be the dirtiest. All indications also point to the most violent," said Lim Guan Eng, the ethnic Chinese chief minister of Penang state and a leading figure in Malaysia's opposition. Members of Perkasa, a group that champions ethnic Malay rights and has links to the ruling party, placed a flower garland around a photo of Lim outside his home in May, a funeral ritual that his supporters said was akin to a death threat. The rising political temperature coincides with signs that Malaysia's ruling coalition, in power since independence in 1957, will struggle to improve on its poor electoral performance in 2008. That showing, which deprived the Barisan Nasional coalition of a two-thirds parliamentary majority for the first time, handed five state governments to the opposition and led to the ouster of then prime minister Abdullah Badawi. A source in the dominant United Malays National Organization (UMNO) told Reuters that recent internal polling showed the coalition faced an uphill battle to win back its two-thirds share and was even at risk of losing its simple majority. The polls showed the coalition risked losing more states and faced a closer than expected race in southern Johor state - long an UMNO bastion - due to waning support from ethnic Chinese. "That will be a slap in the face. So this is why there is a delay in the elections," said the senior UMNO source. Polls by the independent Merdeka Centre show that while Prime Minister Najib Razak enjoys strong approval ratings around 65 percent, his coalition is much less popular - polling at around 48 percent. Najib has put off calling the election, which must be held by next April, showing his apparent wavering confidence in improving on 2008's performance. "UMNO knows their hold on power is not a given," said Ooi Kee Beng, deputy director of the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore. "Perhaps for the first time since 1969, there's a chance change may actually happen so you would expect more desperate moves." The Southeast Asian country was traumatised by race riots in 1969 following strong election gains by ethnic Chinese. The troubles gave birth to its current system of economic privileges for majority ethnic Malays over Chinese and Indian minorities. "RELENTLESS" HATE SPEECH The opposition filed a police report against UMNO lawmaker Mohamad Aziz after he asked in parliament last month whether leading electoral reform campaigner Ambiga Sreenevasan should be hanged for treason. The lawmaker retracted his remark two days, but was not censored by the party leadership. Sreenevasan, a recipient of an International Woman of Courage award from the United States, says she has received death threats. She has hired a bodyguard and installed security cameras around her Kuala Lumpur home. The ethnic Indian has faced calls for her Malaysian citizenship to be revoked and even been labelled the "anti-Christ" by the right-wing Perkasa group. "The hate speech has been relentless," said Sreenevasan. "The leadership could have made a difference but they don't bother. I'm very disappointed." After Sreenevasan led thousands of protesters through Kuala Lumpur in April to demand electoral reforms, dozens of former soldiers and market traders camped outside her house to protest what they said was a loss of earnings from the demonstration. Some performed daily "exercises" that involved pointing their buttocks toward her house as they bent over. Those close to Najib describe him as gentleman who has no taste for gutter politics. But the opposition says his failure to speak out more firmly against incidents of violence and intimidation has encouraged extremists. After the "hanging" comment in parliament, he reminded coalition MPs not to make statements that hurt the feelings of other races or other component parties within the coalition. Asked on Thursday about the allegations of political intimidation, Malaysia's Home Minister, Hishamuddin Hussein, told reporters: "It is very real. This year we are living in a very politically charged climate." The opposition's Lim, who spent 18 months from 1986 detained under the now-repealed Internal Security Act and another year in prison for sedition, said the policy had gone beyond "tacit approval." "The acts are supported and condoned by Barisan Nasional," said Lim, who has complained of several other acts of physical intimidation against him in recent months. Anwar Ibrahim, the opposition's leader who was jailed for six years on sodomy and graft charges he says were trumped-up, blamed UMNO for an incident in February when a group of youths threw stones at his car in Johor state. His daughter, opposition MP Nurul Izzah Anwar, said a rally in her constituency in May was attacked by men throwing rocks, water bottles and eggs, resulting in several injuries. It was one of several opposition rallies that have been disrupted, sometimes violently, in recent months. It is unclear who was behind the attacks, but opposition leaders complain the police have failed to arrest perpetrators or quickly respond to the violence.

Chief adviser Fakhruddin Ahmed Thursday asked people to save energy and stop wasting gas and electricity to narrow the gap between demand and supply. Addressing a workshop and exhibition on "Energy Conservation and Renewable Energy Programmes" at Dhaka Sheraton Hotel, Fakhruddin also stressed using energy-efficient lights, applying energy-saving technology in industry and utilising renewable energy resources such as solar and wind energy. "Promotion of energy conservation and renewable energy technology has become a global trend in recent years due to a phenomenal increase in the prices of petroleum products," he said. Fakhruddin pointed to deepening awareness about the impact of climate change and fast-depleting natural resources across the world. "Bangladesh is no exception to this global trend." The CA said the government was preparing a draft of Energy Conservation Act, including provisions in the building code, to ensure efficient use and conservation of energy in buildings. "These provisions will include shading of building from sunlight and use of energy-efficient air-conditioner/cooler, efficient insulation materials, energy-efficient lights and installation of energy-efficient appliances." The CA said the government had been providing financial and technical assistance for the promotion of solar home systems through implementing agencies. "We have reduced import duty on solar panels from 5 percent to 3 percent." "The government is now focusing on other applications of solar energy, such as water heating, water pumping for irrigation and street lighting," Fakhruddin said. The CA said the government was keen to encourage private investments in the economic sectors and was promoting public-private partnerships in the energy sector. It was also considering adoption of policies for installation of merchant power plants by the private sector, said Fakhruddin. "If the policies are adopted small power plants, captive power plants and merchant power plants will be able to sell power to customers of their choice." Bangladesh Energy Regulatory Commission will oversee the matter, the CA added. Fakhruddin hoped the workshop would come up with new and innovative ideas for promoting energy conservation and use of renewable energy in the country.

The world's oldest and longest-reigning monarch stayed in hospital overnight on Wednesday but returned to Windsor Castle to the west of London the following day, with officials saying she was in good spirits and back at work. The queen, who cancelled an official trip to Northern Ireland on Wednesday, had been told to rest by her medical staff, the Palace said, but her ailment was not related to COVID-19. "Following medical advice to rest for a few days, the queen attended hospital on Wednesday afternoon for some preliminary investigations, returning to Windsor Castle at lunchtime today, and remains in good spirits," the palace said late on Thursday. Aides gave no details on what had prompted the medical attention, and some royal correspondents said they hoped the official version of events painted the full picture. Prime Minister Boris Johnson sent his best wishes and said the monarch was back at her desk. "I am given to understand that actually Her Majesty is, characteristically, back at her desk at Windsor as we speak," Johnson told reporters. A royal source said the queen had stayed at the King Edward VII hospital in central London for practical reasons and that her medical team had taken a cautious approach. The source said she was now resting and undertaking light official duties. Elizabeth, who is queen of 15 other realms including Australia, Canada and New Zealand, returned to her desk for work on Thursday afternoon and was undertaking some light duties, the source said. Elizabeth, who acceded to the throne as Britain was shedding its imperial power, has symbolised stability for generations of British people, building the popularity of the monarchy despite seismic political, social and cultural changes that threatened to make it an anachronism. A quiet and uncomplaining dedication to duty, even in old age, has earned her widespread respect in Britain and abroad, even from republicans who are eager for the monarchy to be abolished. BILLIONAIRES' DRINKS Elizabeth spent Tuesday night hosting a drinks reception at Windsor for billionaire business leaders including Bill Gates after Prime Minister Boris Johnson convened a green investment conference ahead of the COP26 climate summit. Elizabeth, along with her son and heir Prince Charles, 72, and grandson Prince William, 39, greeted guests including US climate envoy John Kerry without masks. The queen, wearing a teal skirt and jacket with pearls, was photographed beside Johnson, smiling and chatting with guests. The head of state, who next year celebrates 70 years on the throne, is known for her robust health. The last time she is thought to have spent a night in hospital was in 2013 when she was suffering from symptoms of gastroenteritis. She had a successful surgery to treat an eye cataract in 2018 and a knee operation in 2003, but royal officials are loathe to discuss health issues in general. Prince Philip, her husband of more than seven decades, died in April aged 99. That has not stopped her from carrying out her official engagements, although her age has meant she has handed more duties to Charles and other members of the royal family. She was this month seen using a walking stick for support in public for the first time, apart from after her knee operation. Not only has she lost her husband, who she described as her "strength and stay", but her second son Prince Andrew has quit royal duties over his links to US financier Jeffrey Epstein, a registered sex offender who killed himself in a Manhattan jail in 2019. Her grandson Prince Harry and his American wife Meghan have also stepped away from royal duties to move to Los Angeles from where they delivered some barbed attacks on Buckingham Palace. Elizabeth's next major engagement is at the end of the month when she is due to welcome world leaders at the opening of COP26 in Glasgow.

Attending their first in-person summit in two years, G20 leaders broadly backed calls to extend debt relief for impoverished countries and pledged to vaccinate 70% of the world's population against COVID-19 by mid-2022. However, with a crucial UN climate conference due to start in just two days, the G20 appeared to be struggling to throw its weight behind the sort of strong new measures that scientists say are needed to avert calamitous global warming. Italy, hosting the gathering in Rome, put health and the economy at the top of the agenda for the first day of the meeting, with the more difficult climate discussions set for Sunday. Underscoring the way the coronavirus crisis has up-ended the world, doctors in white coats and Red Cross workers joined the leaders for their traditional "family" photograph -- a tribute to the sacrifices and efforts of medics across the globe. Addressing the opening of the meeting, being held in a steel and glass convention centre, Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi said governments had to work together to face up to the formidable challenges facing their peoples. "From the pandemic, to climate change, to fair and equitable taxation, going it alone is simply not an option," Draghi said. The corporate tax deal was hailed as a evidence of renewed multilateral coordination, with major corporations facing a minimum 15% tax wherever they operate from 2023 to prevent them from shielding their profits in off-shore entities. "This is more than just a tax deal – it's diplomacy reshaping our global economy and delivering for our people," US President Joe Biden wrote on Twitter. With the world roiled by rising energy prices and stretched supply chains, Biden was expected to urge G20 energy producers with spare capacity to boost production, notably Russia and Saudi Arabia, to ensure a stronger global economic recovery, a senior U.S. administration official said. DIMMED HOPES Like many of the other G20 leaders in Italy, Biden will fly straight to Glasgow on Sunday for the United Nations' climate summit, known as COP26, which is seen as crucial to addressing the threat of rising temperatures. The G20 bloc, which includes Brazil, China, India, Germany and the United States, accounts for an estimated 80% of global greenhouse gas emissions, but hopes the Rome meeting might pave the way to success in Scotland have dimmed considerably. Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russia's Vladimir Putin both decided to follow events only via video link and diplomats looking to seal a meaningful accord said both countries, as well as India, were resisting ambitious new climate goals. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson acknowledged the G20 and COP26 talks would be difficult, but warned that without courageous action, world civilisation could collapse as swiftly as the ancient Roman empire, ushering in a new Dark Age. "It's going to be very, very tough to get the agreement we need," he told reporters, standing next to the ruins of the Colosseum amphitheatre - a symbol of once mighty Rome. CLIMATE EFFORTS A draft communique seen by Reuters said G20 countries will step up their efforts to limit global warming at 1.5 degrees Celsius - the level scientists have said is necessary to avoid disastrous new climate patterns. The document also acknowledges that current national plans on how to curb harmful emissions will have to be strengthened, but offered little detail on how this should be done. Additionally, the leaders are set to pledge to halt financing of overseas coal-fired power generation by the end of this year, and to "do our utmost" to stop building new coal power plants before the end of the 2030s. Apparently relishing in-person diplomacy after months of relative isolation, the leaders held numerous meetings on the sidelines, including discussions between the United States, Britain, Germany and France on Iran's nuclear programme. "It is great to see all of you here, after a difficult few years for the global community," Draghi said, catching the largely upbeat mood amongst those present. Far from the conference centre, known as 'The Cloud', several thousand protesters staged a loud, but peaceful demonstration in the city centre to demand action to stem climate change. "We are holding this protest for environmental and social issues and against the G20, which continues undaunted on a path that has almost led us to social and ecological failure," said protester Edoardo Mentrasti.

Royal Dutch Shell, the second biggest western oil major, has called for a global 'cap and trade; system to cut carbon emissions and promote renewable energy resources and energy security. Chief Executive Jeroen Van der Veer, speaking late on Wednesday at an industry dinner, said such a system would reward companies that invested large sums to capture and store carbon dioxide (CO2). "The best news would be to get more cap and trade schemes around the world and merge them post 2012 (when the Kyoto Protocol on curbing greenhouse gas emissions expires)," van der Veer told Reuters after making his speech. "For more impact, the system must be more global." Carbon trading schemes work by forcing companies and countries to buy permits to emit greenhouse gases -- blamed for global warming -- above a certain cap. They already exist in the European Union and there are markets mooted markets in various US states and in Australia. Such carbon markets are seen as a cost-effective way to curb emissions by allowing participants to shop around for the cheapest cuts, or permits. A fully integrated global market would allow buyers to find the cheapest cuts of all. Under the Kyoto Protocol, industrialised countries can meet their caps on greenhouse gas emissions by funding cuts in poor nations, in the beginnings of such a global trading system. Van der Veer said a global carbon market would make fossil fuels cleaner and promote renewables around the world. Exxon Mobil, the largest western oil major, called on Tuesday for a global approach to fighting climate change using market mechanisms, without specifying a global carbon market. Exxon has drawn criticism in the past for funding research and other groups skeptical about whether mankind is contributing to climate change, but more recently has engaged in industry talks on possible US emissions regulations.

New greenhouse gases emitted in making flat-screen televisions or some refrigerants might be capped under a planned U.N. treaty to combat global warming, delegates at U.N. talks in Ghana said on Friday. Emissions of the recently developed industrial gases, including nitrogen trifluoride and fluorinated ethers, are estimated at just 0.3 percent of emissions of conventional greenhouse gases by rich nations. But the emissions are surging. "I think it's a good idea" to add new gases to a group of six already capped by the U.N.'s Kyoto Protocol for slowing global warming, Yvo de Boer, head of the U.N. Climate Change Secretariat, told Reuters. "It makes sense to address all gases that lead to climate change," he said on the sidelines of the August 21-27 talks in Ghana meant to help work out details of a new treaty to combat global warming due to be agreed at the end of 2009. "The more gases you cover, the greater flexibility countries have" to work out how best to cut back, he said. He added that it was up to governments to decide. More than 190 nations have agreed to work out a broad new pact to succeed Kyoto as part of a drive to avert rising temperatures likely to bring more heatwaves, floods, desertification and rising seas. De Boer said the European Union had originally, in negotiations more than a decade ago that led to Kyoto, favored limiting the treaty to carbon dioxide, emitted by burning fossil fuels in factories, power plants and cars. LIVESTOCK But the addition of five other gases, such as industrial nitrous oxide or methane, emitted by livestock or rotting vegetation in landfills, had bolstered Kyoto, he said. Carbon dioxide is the main gas, accounting for 80 percent of emissions. Among new gases, nitrogen trifluoride is used in making semiconductors such as in flat-screen televisions. Fluorinated ethers have been used in some refrigerants in recent years as replacements for another group of gases found to damage the earth's protective ozone layer. Other new gases, such as iodotrifluoromethane or methyl chloroform, are used in the electronics industry or occur as by-products of industry. "Very little is known about sources, current and future emissions and atmospheric abundance of these gases," according to a technical report presented to delegates. "Emissions in 1990 are assumed to have been close to zero but are increasing exponentially," it said. It estimated that current annual emissions were below the equivalent of 50 million tonnes of carbon dioxide -- or 0.3 percent of greenhouse gas emissions from human activities in rich nations. For carbon markets, the impact of adding new gases was unknown but would "in principle, increase the demand for tradable units under the Kyoto Protocol," it said. Disadvantages were that it could cost a lot to set up new monitoring and could distract focus from more important gases. "I'm pushing this issue to get more clarity," said Harald Dovland, a Norwegian official who chairs a group in Accra looking into new commitments by backers of Kyoto. Kyoto obliges 37 rich nations to cut emissions by 5 percent below 1990 levels by 2008-12. "There are not big amounts of these new gases emitted now. But many parties want to ensure that there are no increases," he said.

The percentage of people calling for bans is up from 71% since 2019, while those who said they favoured products with less plastic packaging rose to 82% from 75%, according to the IPSOS poll of more than 20,000 people across 28 countries. Activists say the results send a clear message to governments meeting in Nairobi this month to press ahead with an ambitious treaty to tackle plastic waste, a deal being touted as the most important environmental pact since the Paris Agreement on climate change in 2015. "People worldwide have made their views clear," said Marco Lambertini, WWF International's director general. "The onus and opportunity is now on governments to adopt a global plastics treaty ... so we can eliminate plastic pollution." Nearly 90% of those surveyed said they supported a treaty, but it remains to be seen whether any such deal will focus on waste collection and recycling or take more radical measures such as curbing production and use of throwaway plastics. Read full story Reuters revealed last week that big oil and chemical industry groups were devising strategies to persuade conference participants to reject any deal that would limit production of plastic, which is made from oil and gas and a key source of their revenues. Read full story If the United Nations cannot agree on a deal to put the brakes on plastic pollution, there will be widespread ecological damage over the coming decades, putting some marine species at risk of extinction and destroying sensitive ecosystems such as coral reefs and mangroves, according to a WWF study released this month. It is likely to take at least two years to finalise any treaty. But whatever is agreed at the Nairobi conference from Feb. 28 to March 2 will determine key elements of any deal. The biggest support for single-use plastic bans in the poll came from the likes of Colombia, Mexico and India, developing countries at the sharp end of a waste crisis. The IPSOS poll also showed that 85% of respondents globally want manufacturers and retailers to be held responsible for reducing, reusing and recycling plastic packaging, up from 80% previously.

Now she is investing heavily in her online store, selling T-shirts, sweatshirts and other merchandise with her name, "AOC" initials or slogans including "Tax the Rich" and "Fight for our Future," efforts aimed at both fundraising and building the second-term lawmaker's profile nationally. Her campaign paid political merchandise firm Financial Innovations, which operates her online store and supplies merchandise, more than $1.4 million in the first six months of 2021, according to campaign disclosures to the Federal Election Commission late last week. That is more than many lawmakers spent on their entire re-election efforts during the period, and nearly double her payments made over the prior two years to Financial Innovations, a Cranston, Rhode Island firm that specializes in political merchandise for Democrats. Political T-shirts and campaign swag were once a rarity on America's streets, the sign of a campaign volunteer or politics junkie. That changed markedly over the last six years as Donald Trump supporters adopted his trademark red "Make America Great Again" cap. In addition to raising a candidate's profile -- and standing as a badge of identity in an increasingly polarized nation -- political merchandise is a small but significant fundraising tool. Ocasio-Cortez's push into merchandise shows she is honing an already formidable fundraising operation and building her brand within the Democratic Party. "It's a sign she is nurturing her massive influence," said Andrew Frawley, who managed the merchandise operation for Andrew Yang's 2020 presidential campaign -- including his "Math" T-shirts. 'CULT OF PERSONALITY' While she has no formal party leadership role, Ocasio-Cortez has star power rarely seen in the U.S. Congress. She has more than 8 million Instagram followers and last year shot a video for Vogue detailing her personal skin care routine. Her online store capitalizes on her fame, experts said. "There's the campaign finance aspect of it and, for lack of a better term, there's the cult of personality aspect of it," said Ciara Torres-Spelliscy, who studies political branding at Stetson University. Peter Hogness poses wearing his Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez branded T-shirt in the Park Slope area of Brooklyn in New York City, US, July 16, 2021. REUTERS Since defeating the then-chair of the House Democratic caucus in a 2018 primary and easily winning her seat to represent a swath of New York City, Ocasio-Cortez has become the face of progressive Democrats' push for a "Green New Deal," a set of climate goals. Peter Hogness poses wearing his Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez branded T-shirt in the Park Slope area of Brooklyn in New York City, US, July 16, 2021. REUTERS She faces little risk of losing her seat in a heavily liberal district when U.S. voters next year determine which party will control Congress for the second half of President Joe Biden's term. 'TAX THE RICH' Kiley Bolton, 22, a college student in Leander, Texas, said she gets both compliments and eye rolls when she wears her "Tax The Rich" sweatshirt she bought from Ocasio-Cortez's campaign. "I like what it stands for and I like AOC," Bolton said. Merchandise sales count as campaign contributions but it's not clear how much T-shirts and hoodies are bringing to Ocasio-Cortez's coffers. Campaign disclosures rarely specify whether a donation involved merchandise. Frawley said the Ocasio-Cortez campaign could be making a 50% profit or more on much of its sales. Selling hats and shirts is a good fundraising tool early in a campaign cycle when supporters might see policy fights as more pressing than a distant Election Day, said Michael Duncan, a Republican consultant who has set up online shops including for Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell's campaign. Buyers also typically give campaigns their best contact information, which is useful for future fundraising and for recruiting volunteers. "That's a huge value to political campaigns," Duncan said. In an emailed statement, Ocasio-Cortez's campaign said its online store is focused on "uplifting independent artists colourlor whose work tells a story of community and imagines a more equitable world for all." Using merchandise sales to grow her fundraising could help her wield more influence in the Democratic Party, by allowing her to support candidates who share her goals, said Bruce Newman, a political scientist who edits the Journal of Political Marketing. Already, her fundraising hauls look more like what's raised by party leaders or senators. Her campaign has raised about $6.9 million since the November election, compared to $10.8 million by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and $23.9 million by Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer, who is up for re-election in 2022 and viewed as a potential primary target for Ocasio-Cortez. "One would assume that she does have ambitions for higher office. Having a big bank account is certainly useful for that," said Erika Franklin Fowler, a political scientist affiliated with the Wesleyan Media Project's Delta Lab research group, which calculated that the share of Ocasio-Cortez's Facebook ads offering merchandise late last year was more than twice that of other House candidates.

CHICAGO, Dec 10(bdnews24.com/Reuters)President-elect Barack Obama said on Tuesday attacking global climate change is a 'matter of urgency'that will create jobs as he got advice from Al Gore, who won a Nobel Peace Prize for his work on the issue. In remarks to reporters, Obama made clear he would adopt an aggressive approach to global warming when he takes over the White House on January 20. He and Vice President-elect Joe Biden met for nearly two hours with former Vice President Gore at Obama's presidential transition office in Chicago. "All three of us are in agreement that the time for delay is over, the time for denial is over," Obama said. Obama hopes addressing climate change can create the kind of jobs that will help pull the US economy out of a deepening recession. He has begun to lay out plans for a massive recovery program to help stimulate the US economy and create about 2.5 million jobs. He said he would work with Democrats and Republicans, businesses, consumers and others with a stake in the issue to try to reach a consensus on a bold, aggressive approach to tackling the problem. "This is a matter of urgency and of national security and it has to be dealt with in a serious way. That's what I intend my administration to do," Obama said. Obama had a willing partner in Gore, who won a Nobel in 2007 for his years-long effort to educate people about the gradual warming of the planet and to argue against those scientists who believe a warming trend is a naturally occurring event. There was no talk of offering Gore a job in the Obama administration. Gore has indicated he is not interested in a position of climate "czar" or any Cabinet post. Just two days after Obama won the November 4 election, Gore's Alliance for Climate Protection rolled out a media campaign to push for immediate investments in energy efficiency, renewable power generation like wind and solar technology and the creation of a unified national power grid. Gore and his group are in line with most US environmental groups, which believe the Obama administration has a chance to stem global warming. Critics have accused the outgoing Bush administration of stalling on the issue, but the White House insists it is taking steps aimed at addressing the problem without damaging the U.S. economy. "We have the opportunity now to create jobs all across this country, in all 50 states, to re-power America, to redesign how we use energy, to think about how we are increasing efficiency, to make our economy stronger, make us more safe, reduce our dependence on foreign oil and make us competitive for decades to come, even as we're saving the planet," Obama said.

Gore, a former vice president who won a Nobel Peace Prize for raising awareness about the problems with climate change, said on NBC's "Today" show that he was proud of the channel and had never thought of it as simply a monetary investment."As an independent network ... we found it difficult to compete in this age of conglomerates," he said.Earlier this month, Qatar-based Al Jazeera announced it was buying Current TV, a move that could enable it to better compete with American news networks like CNN, MSNBC and Fox.Terms were undisclosed, but analysts estimated the deal could be worth as much as $500 million; Gore has reportedly pocketed roughly $100 million in the deal."I'm proud of what my partner Joel Hyatt and I did with Current TV," said Gore, who served under Democratic President Bill Clinton for eight years before losing his own bid for the presidency in 2000. He and Hyatt started the channel in 2005.Al Jazeera operates under the patronage of the emir of Qatar and his family. The Middle East country tucked between Saudi Arabia and the Persian Gulf gets much of its wealth from oil and gas. The news network has said it planned a new US-based news channel with the acquisition but has already struggled over distribution issues.Gore has been criticized for selling the channel to a broadcaster that is partially funded by the Gulf oil state even as he champions efforts to battle global warming.He has taken US television networks to task, for instance, for accepting advertising dollars from traditional energy companies in his recently published book "The Future," according to NBC.But on Tuesday he deflected the criticism, saying Al Jazeera is committed to strong coverage of climate change and the environment."By the way, it's climate coverage has been far more extensive and of high quality than any of the networks here," he said."Virtually every news and political commentary program on television is sponsored in part by oil, coal and gas companies - not just during the campaign seasons, but all the time, year in and year out - with messages designed to soothe and reassure the audience that everything is fine, the global environment is not threatened," Gore writes in the book, NBC said.Scientists say emissions from cars and coal-fed power plants are partially to blame for the carbon dioxide warming the planet, but many conservatives challenge that idea and have raised doubts about global warming overall.The 2006 documentary film "An Inconvenient Truth" that chronicled Gore's effort to raise awareness about global climate change won numerous awards, including an Academy Award.Gore, who has said President Barack Obama's effort on global warming issues during his first term fell short, praised the president's call to action in his second inaugural address last week."He has now put his commitment out there ... he's put his presidency behind this issue," he said.

Lawns that are mowed and edges trimmed with military precision. Lawns where leaves are banished with roaring machines and that are oftentimes doused with pesticides. Lawns that are fastidiously manicured by landscapers like Justin Camp, Jacobs’ neighbour next door, who maintains his own pristine blanket of green. “It takes a special kind of person to do something like that,” Camp said, nodding to wooded wilds of his neighbour’s yard. “I mow lawns for a living, so it’s not my thing.” Jacobs and his wife, Lynn Jacobs, do not have a lawn to speak of, not counting the patch of grass out back over which Jacobs runs his old manual mower every now and then. Their house is barely visible, obscured by a riot of flora that burst with colours — periwinkles, buttery yellows, whites, deep oranges, scarlets — from early spring through late fall. They grow assorted milkweeds, asters, elderberry, mountain mint, joe-pye weed, goldenrods, white snakeroot and ironweed. Most are native to the region, and virtually all serve the higher purpose of providing habitats and food to migrating birds and butterflies, moths, beetles, flies and bees. Jacobs is an ecologist and a Catholic who believes that humans can fight climate change and help repair the world right where they live. While a number of urban dwellers and suburbanites also sow native plants to that end, Jacobs says people need something more: to reconnect with nature and experience the sort of spiritual transcendence he feels in a forest, or on a mountain, or amid the bounty of his own yard. It is a feeling that, for him, is akin to feeling close to God. “We need something greater than people,” said Jacobs, who worked at the Nature Conservancy for nine years before joining a nonprofit that tackles invasive species — plants, animals and pathogens that squeeze out native varieties. “We need a calling outside of ourselves, to some sort of higher power, to something higher than ourselves to preserve life on Earth.” Which is why, for years now, Jacobs has looked beyond the lawns of Wading River, a woodsy hamlet on Long Island’s North Shore, to spread that ethos around the world. About 20 years ago, he began compiling quotes from the Bible, saints and popes that expound on the sanctity of Earth and its creatures, and posting them online. He considered naming the project after St. Francis of Assisi, the go-to saint for animals and the environment. But, not wanting to impose another European saint on American land, he instead named it after Kateri Tekakwitha, a 17th century Algonquin-Mohawk woman who converted to Catholicism as a teenager and, in 2012, became the first Native American to be canonised. “Kateri would’ve known every plant, would’ve collected food and would’ve been very connected with the land,” Jacobs said. Three years ago, Jacobs took a step further, teaming up with a fellow Catholic ecologist, Kathleen Hoenke, to launch the St. Kateri Habitats initiative, which encourages the creation of wildlife-friendly gardens that feature native plants and offer a place to reflect and meditate (they also teamed up to write a book, “Our Homes on Earth: A Catholic Faith and Ecology Field Guide for Children,” due out in 2023). They enlisted other ecology-minded Catholics and have since added an Indigenous peoples program and two Indigenous women to their board. The site is apolitical, runs on donations, and proposes ways people can help mitigate the climate crisis and biodiversity collapse. “People have to love the Earth before they save it,” Jacobs said. “So love is the key. We don’t do doomsday stuff.” There are now about 190 St. Kateri Habitats on five continents, including an eco-village on the isle of Mauritius, a tree nursery in Cameroon, an atrium in Kailua Kona, Hawaii, and a suburban backyard in Washington, DC. The Jacobses’ yard was the first and includes nonnative plants that birds and insects love like fuchsia, a magnet for hummingbirds, and Lynn Jacobs’ steadily expanding patch of Mexican sunflowers, where, amid the petals, bumblebees often doze off in the late afternoon. Out back, autumn leaves are left in place for overwintering insects, and a years-old pile of fallen branches has become home to generations of chipmunks. Yet as the number of St. Kateri habitats grew worldwide, and their one-third acre grew more hospitable to wildlife, many of the Jacobses’ neighbours seemed to take the exact opposite tack. In nearby yards, old trees were felled by the dozens, thinning the neighbourhood’s overhead canopy. Noisy machinery replaced rakes, fallen leaves became anathema, and outsourced landscaping, once the purview of the rich, became common. As concerns about tick-borne diseases grew, the popularity of pesticides soared. The Jacobses began carefully moving monarch butterfly eggs and caterpillars to special nests inside their home, to protect them from parasites and drifting chemicals. For the Jacobses, so-called all-natural or organic pesticides are suspect, too; if a substance is designed to kill one type of insect, they figure it is bound to hurt others. Had not people heard about the insect apocalypse? “If you’re a type of being that really has a hard time seeing things die, it’s very troubling,” Lynn Jacobs said during a chat in her garden one recent fall day, raising her voice over the din of a gasoline-powered blower that was shooing leaves from a neighbour’s lawn. Bill Jacobs, for his part, looks around at all the pristine lawns (“the lawn is an obsession, like a cult,” he said) and sees ecological deserts that feed neither wildlife nor the human soul. “This is a poverty that most of us are not even aware of,” he said. Among the lawn-owning Wading River set, sentiments about the Jacobses’ thriving habitat range from admiring to indifferent to mixed. A few neighbours have whispered complaints that sometimes rats join the critter parade to the Jacobses’ yard. Bill Jacobs said they are drawn to birdseed — and to other neighbours’ yards too — and also that he just invested in new rodent-proof compost bins. Camp, the landscaper, maintains a friendly politesse with the Jacobses and said that as bountiful as their garden was, lawns like his involve far less work. The other landscaper whose property abuts their yard did not respond to requests for comment. Linda Covello, who lives down the road, and who has also kept a dead tree in place because woodpeckers regularly nest there, described Lynn Jacobs as “some sort of Galadriel from Lord of the Rings.” “You’ve got your landscaping people out here,” Covello said, “But she’s the lady of the woods, the goddess of the woods.” Overall, though, the Jacobses had to concede that locally, their approach to nature was not exactly catching on. Then a magazine marketing executive named William McCaffrey bought the house across from them in 2020 and moved in with Maxwell, his miniature pinscher. From the start, McCaffrey was entranced by the Jacobses’ garden and took photos as he and Maxwell walked by. He and Lynn Jacobs got to chatting, and he told her that he wanted to gussy up his place, too, and grow wisteria. Jacobs gently relayed that as beautiful as wisteria was, it was invasive, smothering native plants and starving them of light. “She told me she could show me alternatives,” McCaffrey said. “I never really thought about it. She educated me.” She gave him seeds from her flowers, and he planted them along with other native species. This past summer, hummingbirds, monarch butterflies and pairs of goldfinches zipped between the Jacobses’ garden and his. Now McCaffrey is planning to vastly expand his flower beds, which, per Jacobs’ counsel, he enriches using leaves from his lawn, to include 30 other kinds of native plants. He has two cars and thinks about what else he could do in his yard to offset their carbon dioxide emissions. “I’m a convert,” McCaffrey said, “It really made me think about how and what I pick for my garden works into the whole cycle.” He is also noticing the land around him in new ways. One of his favourite trees on his property is a twisty, soaring locust. Gazing at it one day, McCaffrey realised he could see the shape of a woman in its graceful branches, and now he spots her every time he looks. “Can you see her?” he said, pointing up to the tree one recent day. “A ballerina.” ©2021 The New York Times Company

Former US Vice President Al Gore drew cheers at 190-nation talks by saying the United States was the main block to launching negotiations in Bali on a new global climate treaty. Efforts to start two-year negotiations on a pact to succeed the Kyoto Protocol flagged on Thursday, the penultimate day of the Dec. 3-14 talks, after the European Union accused the United States of lacking ambition. "I am going to speak an inconvenient truth," Gore told an audience of several hundred, playing on the name of his Oscar-winning documentary. And in low tones he added: "My own country the United States is principally responsible for obstructing progress in Bali," spurring rapturous applause and cheers. Arriving fresh from Oslo, where he had collected the Nobel Peace Prize, Gore urged governments to forge a "new path" towards a global climate change agreement in spite of what he described as an obstructive United States. "I don't know how you can navigate around this enormous elephant in the room which I've been undiplomatic enough to name. But I'm asking you to do it," he said. Gore was defeated by President George W. Bush in the 2000 presidential race. Other agreements in Bali could also help developing countries adapt to damage from climate change, curb their rising emissions of greenhouse gases and mark a step towards protecting tropical forests. Rajendra Pachauri, who collected the Nobel Prize on behalf of a UN panel of climate scientists that shared the award with Gore, vaulted onto the podium to shake Gore's hand. EU-US SPLIT Earlier on Thursday, the EU accused the United States of climate inaction, saying the rest of the world was still waiting for US leadership, and threatened to boycott a US-hosted climate meet of major economies next month. The Bali talks are split over the guidelines for starting two years of formal negotiations on a deal to succeed Kyoto. The EU wants a firm guideline of cuts of 25-40 percent in greenhouse gases by 2020 below 1990 levels, while the United States, Japan and Canada say figures would prejudge the outcome. Gore stole the show in Bali after two days of lengthy ministerial speeches which had waxed on familiar themes about the urgency of action to slow global warming and the need for cooperation. In a speech familiar to viewers of his film "An Inconvenient Truth" and to a global climate change lecture tour, Gore puzzled over a lack of urgency to fight climate change at Bali. "There's no precedent in history, culture for the radically new relationship between humanity and the planet," he said, citing new evidence this week that the North Pole may be ice-free in summer as soon as 2012. Gore counted one year and 40 days to the day the United States would have a new president to succeed George W. Bush. He predicted that a successor who would do more to act on global warming seriously. Gore has repeatedly said he has no plans to run.

South Africa's business confidence dipped marginally in March, hovering just above a four-year low hit in January, the South African Chamber of Commerce and Industry said on Friday. SACCI said its business confidence index (BCI) stood at 93.9 in March, from 94.0 in February. It fell to 93.8 in January, its lowest level since October 2003. The business organisation said a weaker exchange rate and high inflation weighed on industry confidence, while strong share prices and lower real financing costs helped cap the index's fall. "Given the present uneasy global economic climate, uncertainty in the global financial system and lower local and global economic growth prospects, the BCI remains stationary," it said in a statement. But conditions were tough and confidence fragile. The chamber said strong inflation remained a problem, although easier money supply and credit growth figures suggested the central bank's monetary policy tightening may be having the desired effect of taming consumer spending. The Reserve Bank has a tough interest rate decision to make next week after leaving its repo rate unchanged at 11 percent in January following a total of 400 basis points in increases since June 2006. It had halted the rate hike cycle on concerns about economic growth but inflation continues to accelerate, with the targeted CPIX jumping to a five-year high 9.4 percent year-on-year in February. "Monetary policy already faces difficult challenges of balancing risks of accelerating inflation and price instability and constrained economic activity," SACCI said. While lower international oil and food prices in the shorter term could bring some relief, a weaker rand together with South Africa's propensity to import may add to inflationary expectations. "Business confidence is at a stage where it could change for the better or worse and economic policy issues therefore shoudl be approached with caution," it added.

Southeast Asia is one of the world's most vulnerable regions to climate change and could face conflict over failing rice yields, lack of water and high economic costs, a major Asian Development Bank report shows. The region's economies could lose as much as 6.7 percent of combined gross domestic product yearly by 2100, more than twice the global average loss, according to the ADB's report on the economics of climate change in Southeast Asia. "By the end of this century, the economy-wide cost each year on average could reach 2.2 percent of GDP, if only market impact is considered...(to) 6.7 percent of GDP when catastrophic risks are also taken into account," the British-government funded report said. This compared with an estimated global loss of just under 1 percent of GDP in market impact terms, the Manila-based ADB said. The global economic downturn could delay funding for climate change mitigation measures by regional governments. Yet this was the time to offer incentives for green investment schemes in the energy and water sectors, said the study focusing on Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam. These schemes could involve the shift to renewable and clean energy options for the power and transport sectors across Southeast Asia, home to nearly 600 million people. In particular, cutting carbon emissions from forest fires and deforestation was crucial since these were major contributors to the region's total emissions, it said. Renewable energy such as wind, solar, biomass and geothermal also offered great potential in slashing emissions. VULNERABLE But if nothing was done globally to fight climate change, Southeast Asia could suffer a decline in rice output potential of about 50 percent on average by 2100 against 1990 levels. The yield drop ranged from 34 percent in Indonesia to 75 percent in the Philippines, with the fall forecast to start in 2020 for the four nations. Southeast Asia is one of the most vulnerable regions to climate change because of the high economic activity along its long coastlines, and its heavy dependence on agriculture, forestry and other natural resources. Unless the pace of climate change was checked, millions of people in the region would be left unable to produce or purchase sufficient food. "More people will be at risk of hunger and malnutrition, which will cause more deaths. The possibility of local conflicts may increase," said the report. Annual mean temperature in the four countries could also rise by an average 4.8 degrees Celsius by 2100 from 1990 levels if global emissions keep growing. This would intensify water shortages in the dry season and raise flooding risks during wet periods. The report says an increase in extreme weather events, such as droughts, floods and storms, and forest fires arising from climate change would also jeopardize export industries. It said the region, which contributed 12 percent of the world's greenhouse gas emissions in 2000, had made significant efforts to counter climate change, but most steps were reactive and offered short-term benefits with implementation patchy. Raising public awareness of climate change and its impact, increased funding and enhancing policy coordination, were crucial, it added. Stepping up measures to adapt were also needed. These included scaling up water conservation and management, developing heat-resistant crop varieties, more efficient irrigation systems and enhanced awareness-raising programs to prepare for more forest fires.

The officials said aides had worked until 2 am to finalize a communique for the Group of 20, overcoming differences on trade after US officials agreed to language on fighting protectionism. "The outcome is good. We have a communique. There is one issue left, which is on climate, but I am hopeful we can find a compromise," said one EU official, speaking on condition of anonymity. "We have all the fundamentals. "We have a G20 communique, not a G19 communique," he added. The section that needs to be resolved by the leaders relates to the US insistence that there be a reference to fossil fuels, the official said. With the final statement almost nailed down, the summit marked a diplomatic success for Chancellor Angela Merkel as she finessed differences with US President Donald Trump, who arrived at the two-day summit isolated on a host of issues. Trump, who on Friday found chemistry in his first face-to-face meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, congratulated Merkel for her stewardship of the summit. "You have been amazing and you have done a fantastic job. Thank you very much chancellor," he said. Trump and Putin on Friday discussed alleged Russian meddling in the US election but agreed to focus on future ties rather than dwell on the past, a result that was sharply criticized by leading Democrats in Congress. For Merkel, the summit is an opportunity to show off her diplomatic skills ahead of a federal election in September, when she is seeking a fourth term in office. She treated the leaders to a concert at Hamburg's Elbphilharmonie on Friday night, where they listened to Beethoven while their aides began their all night slog to work out a consensus on trade that had eluded the leaders. Trade policy has become more contentious since Trump entered the White House promising an "America First" approach. The trade section in the statement the aides thrashed out read: "We will keep markets open noting the importance of reciprocal and mutually advantageous trade and investment frameworks and the principle of non-discrimination, and continue to fight protectionism including all unfair trade practices and recognize the role of legitimate trade defense instruments in this regard." Climate clash Climate change policy proved a sticking point, with the United States pressing for inclusion of wording about which other countries had reservations. That passage read: "... the United States of America will endeavour to work closely with other partners to help their access to and use of fossil fuels more cleanly and efficiently ..." The climate section took note of Trump's decision last month to withdraw the United States from the landmark Paris climate accord aimed at combating climate change, and reaffirmed the commitment of the other 19 members to the agreement. Merkel chose to host the summit in Hamburg, the port city where she was born, to send a signal about Germany's openness to the world, including its tolerance of peaceful protests. As the leaders met on Saturday, police helicopters hovered overhead. Overnight, police clashed with anti-capitalist protesters seeking to disrupt the summit. In the early morning, heavily armed police commandos moved in after activists had spent much of Friday attempting to wrest control of the streets from more than 15,000 police, setting fires, looting and building barricades. The summit is being held only a few hundred meters from one of Germany's most potent symbols of left-wing resistance, a former theatre called the "Rote Flora" which was taken over by anti-capitalist squatters nearly three decades ago. Police said 200 officers had been injured, 134 protesters temporarily detained and another 100 taken into custody.

While capping carbon dioxide from being freely dumped into the atmosphere is turning into a very long deliberation among our world leaders, capturing and repurposing it is another option. And that alternative has proved promising by Air Co, a 4-year-old startup that uses carbon dioxide in all of the products it creates. Its latest creation is a perfume — Air Eau de Parfum — and the first fragrance made largely from air. Perfume involves an alcohol base, which when combined with a bit of water and a measured ratio of fragrance oil becomes the juice that you spray onto your pulse points so that you radiate whatever aroma you desire. Ethyl alcohol (or ethanol) is most widely used because it’s inexpensive, smells neutral and evaporates quickly, so it serves as an efficient delivery vehicle for the fragrance oil. What Air Co is able to do is transform carbon dioxide into a very pure form of ethanol. And with the addition of water and fragrance oil, you get perfume made primarily from air. “We believe that products are one of the best ways to educate people about a much bigger story‚ and that story is climate change,” Gregory Constantine, a founder and the chief executive of the company, wrote via email. “When you’re able to create tangible products, it’s easier for people to understand the power of technology and what we can do with our carbon conversion technology.” That technology was developed by Stafford Sheehan, a founder and the chief technology officer of Air Co After meeting in 2017, Sheehan and Constantine teamed up to repurpose the most abundant greenhouse gas (carbon dioxide) into products that are not harmful to the planet. Air Eau de Parfum is the company’s third consumer product. It began with spirits — a vodka in 2019 — and then a sanitiser spray in 2020, the year of sanitising hands. The scent itself was formulated and blended by Joya Studio, a design studio in New York that specializes in custom perfumes. Fresh and crisp, it’s reminiscent of a bolt of sunlight through a cloud, with a mineral hint of sea spray. If that sounds like the title screen of a BBC nature documentary, that’s kind of the point. “We wanted to allow people to reconnect with the outdoors, and with nature, especially after spending such a long period indoors during the pandemic,” Constantine said in the email, noting that air, water and sun are the elements that make up their technology. Think of those elements as the brand’s scent signature. If you’re looking for a more traditional fragrance breakdown, the juice has top notes of fig leaf and orange peel, with heart notes of jasmine, violet and sweetwater in the middle and powdery musk and tobacco in the base. The fragrance is not marketed to a specific gender. It’s available for preorder at aircompany.com for $220 for 50 millilitres, and the company plans to ship in early 2022. Air Co is what Constantine calls “source agnostic,” meaning it gets its CO2 from multiple suppliers, as well as from direct air capture. One of those partners is an industrial alcohol plant in New York, which collects the carbon dioxide (that would otherwise be released into the atmosphere) from its fermentation processes. That CO2 gets cooled, pressurised, liquefied and packaged in tanks before being delivered to one of Air Co’s Air Innovation facilities. Constantine explained that a bottle of Air Eau de Parfum used approximately 56 grams of CO2, resulting in a net environmental removal of 36 grams when factoring in its manufacturing processes, including life cycle emissions of renewable electricity, production equipment and carbon dioxide capture. As enjoyable as environmentally sustainable booze and perfume may be, one might suggest that they are perhaps not the most beneficial uses for this technological innovation. Air Co has bigger ambitions, though. “The opportunities for utilizing carbon emissions are as large and wide as we want them to be,” Constantine said, adding that the company is working with industrial partners to set its technology on more global ambitions for a much larger impact. Air Co won a NASA conversion competition in 2019 by successfully turning carbon dioxide into sugar, and the company hopes to help develop carbon-neutral jet fuel that could replace liquid methane, a nonreusable fossil fuel. “We understand that our climate impact is still somewhat minimal,” Constantine said, “but if we were to apply our technology to all applicable industries, we would negate global CO2 emissions by just over 10% for one single technology.” ©2021 The New York Times Company

Documents obtained by The New York Times show that Biden’s first budget request as president calls for the federal government to spend $6 trillion in the 2022 fiscal year, and for total spending to rise to $8.2 trillion by 2031. The growth is driven by Biden’s two-part agenda to upgrade the nation’s infrastructure and substantially expand the social safety net, contained in his American Jobs Plan and American Families Plan, along with other planned increases in discretionary spending. The proposal shows the sweep of Biden’s ambitions to wield government power to help more Americans attain the comforts of a middle-class life and to lift U.S. industry to better compete globally in an economy the administration believes will be dominated by a race to reduce energy emissions and combat climate change. Biden’s plan to fund his agenda by raising taxes on corporations and high earners would begin to shrink budget deficits in the 2030s. Administration officials have said the jobs and families plans would be fully offset by tax increases over the course of 15 years, which the budget request backs up. In the meantime, the United States would run significant deficits as it borrows money to finance his plans. Under Biden’s proposal, the federal budget deficit would hit $1.8 trillion in 2022, even as the economy rebounds from the pandemic recession to grow at what the administration predicts would be its fastest annual pace since the early 1980s. It would recede slightly in the following years before growing again to nearly $1.6 trillion by 2031. Total debt held by the public would more than exceed the annual value of economic output, rising to 117 percent of the size of the economy in 2031. By 2024, debt as a share of the economy would rise to its highest level in U.S. history, eclipsing its World War II-era record. The levels of taxation and spending in Biden’s plans would expand the federal fiscal footprint to levels rarely seen in the postwar era, to fund investments that his administration says are crucial to keeping the United States competitive. That includes money for roads, water pipes, broadband internet, electric vehicle charging stations and advanced manufacturing research. It also envisions funding for affordable child care, universal prekindergarten, a national paid leave program and a host of other initiatives. Spending on national defense would also grow, although it would decline as a share of the economy. The documents suggest that Biden will not propose major additional policies in the budget, or that his budget will flesh out plans that the administration has thus far declined to detail. For example, Biden pledged to overhaul and upgrade the nation’s unemployment insurance programme as part of the American Families Plan, but such efforts are not included in his budget. The budget is simply a request to Congress, which must approve federal spending. But with Democrats in control both chambers of Congress, Biden faces some of the best odds of any president in recent history in having much of his agenda approved, particularly if he can reach agreement with lawmakers on parts of his infrastructure agenda. If Biden’s plans were enacted, the government would spend what amounts to nearly a quarter of the nation’s total economic output every year over the course of the next decade. It would collect tax revenues equal to just under one fifth of the total economy. In each year of Biden’s budget, the government would spend more as a share of the economy than all but two years since World War II: 2020 and 2021, which were marked by trillions of dollars in federal spending to help people and businesses endure the pandemic-induced recession. By 2028, when Biden could be finishing a second term in office, the government would be collecting more tax revenue as a share of the economy than almost any point in modern statistical history; the only other comparable period was the end of President Bill Clinton’s second term, when the economy was roaring and the budget was in surplus. The documents also show the conservative approach that Biden’s economic team is taking with regard to projecting the economy’s growth, as compared to his predecessor’s. Biden’s aides predict that even if his full agenda were enacted, the economy would grow at just under 2 percent per year for most of the decade, after accounting for inflation. That rate is similar to the historically sluggish pace of growth that the nation has averaged over the past 20 years. Unemployment would fall to 4.1 percent by next year — from 6.1 percent today — and remain below 4 percent in the years thereafter. Former President Donald Trump consistently submitted budget proposals that predicted his policies would push the economy to a sustained annual rate of nearly 3 percent for a full decade. In his four years in office, annual growth reached that rate once. The final budget submitted by President Barack Obama, when Biden was vice president, predicted annual growth of about 2.3 percent on average over the span of a decade. The Biden forecasts continue to show his administration has little fear of rapid inflation breaking out across the economy, despite recent data showing a quick jump in prices as the economy reopens after a year of suppressed activity amid the pandemic. Under the Biden team’s projections, consumer prices never rise faster than 2.3 percent per year, and the Federal Reserve only gradually raises interest rates from their current rock-bottom levels in the coming years. Biden has pitched the idea that now is the time, with interest rates low and the nation still rebuilding from recession, to make large upfront investments that will be paid for over a longer time horizon. His budget shows net real interest costs for the federal government remaining below historical averages for the course of the decade. Interest rates are controlled by the Fed, which is independent of the White House. Even if interest rates stay low, payments on the national debt would consume an increased share of the federal budget. Net interest payments would double, as a share of the economy, from 2022 to 2031. A spokesman for the White House budget office declined to comment Thursday. Administration officials are set to detail the full budget, which will span hundreds of pages, Friday in Washington. On Thursday, Biden is scheduled to deliver an address on the economy in Cleveland.   © 2021 The New York Times Company

India, one of the top emitters of greenhouses gases that lead to global warming, is eyeing 450 gigawatt of renewable energy capacity by 2030, Modi said in an address to the Global Climate Ambition Summit. Renewable energy capacity would reach 175 gigawatt before 2022, he said.

Globally, the group says, 14 of the 15 hottest years recorded have occurred since 2000: climate change is happening now, with greenhouse gas emissions from human activity the dominant cause. It says the UK could, by the end of this century, experience dangerously high temperatures far above their pre-industrial levels. “Global emissions of greenhouse gases will need to peak soon and then decline rapidly for the Paris Agreement goals to be feasible. “Even in this scenario, the uncertain sensitivity of the climate to greenhouse gases means there would remain at least a small chance of 4°C or more of warming by 2100.” By 2081-2100, warming in the UK is likely to be between 1.4 degrees Celsius and 3.2 degrees Celsius, under a scenario assuming the highest level of greenhouse gas mitigation. The highest emissions scenario, though, suggests a range from 3.4-6.2 degrees Celsius. Reducing emissions The warning comes from the Committee on Climate Change (CCC), set up to advise Parliament on progress made in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and preparing for climate change. The report by the CCC describes what it sees as the most urgent risks and opportunities for the UK from climate change. Significantly, given the unexpected turn of political events in the UK since the referendum vote on June 23 to leave the European Union, the report says the impact of the move does not change the overall conclusions of its risk assessment. However, it says pointedly that some individual risks may change if EU-derived policies and legislation are withdrawn “and not replaced by equivalent or better UK measures”. The CCC says it will assess the implications of the EU referendum decision in its next statutory report to Parliament − due to be published in June 2017 − on the UK’s national adaptation programme. This year’s report provides details of what the authors say are the most urgent risks resulting from changes to the UK’s climate. These are likely to include periods of too much or too little water, increasing average and extreme temperatures, and sea level rise. They single out several “immediate priority areas”. These are related to risks of flooding and coastal change; the impact of high temperatures on health and wellbeing; risks to natural capital; and the risks of future water shortages affecting the public water supply and water for agriculture, energy generation and industry. There would also be effects on freshwater ecology. Two further priorities are impacts on the global food system, and risks arising from new and emerging pests, alien species and diseases that would affect people, plants and animals. Smog surrounds The Shard, western Europe's tallest building, and St Paul's Cathedral in London April 3, 2014. Reuters The report acknowledges that climate change could offer the UK opportunities, including perhaps increased agricultural and forestry production, if enough water is available and soil fertility is managed. Smog surrounds The Shard, western Europe's tallest building, and St Paul's Cathedral in London April 3, 2014. Reuters It identifies serious problems with UK soils, including declining quality from the loss of organic matter, increasing seasonal dryness and wetness, and soil compaction and erosion. Businesses in the UK could also benefit from an increase in global demand for adaptation-related goods and services, such as engineering and insurance. The authors take care to stress that climate change is a global threat whose effects are being felt far beyond the UK, and far more acutely in many countries. Imported impacts They say: “Impacts will be imported to the UK through the price and safety of food and other commodities, changes in the patterns of trade, disruption to global supply chains, and risks to overseas investments. “Climate change is expected to increase the frequency of weather extremes, disproportionately affecting low income populations. “The UK is likely to be called upon to provide more resources for humanitarian assistance, and efforts to build state stability and long-term resilience could be undermined.” It cites one example of the way in which extreme weather in distant parts of the world can not only disrupt supply chains but damage the UK directly. In 2012, a drought in the US contributed to increases in the price of soya, which, in turn, led to some UK pig farmers being forced out of business. Lord Krebs, a member of the CCC, says: “The impacts of climate change are becoming ever clearer, both in the United Kingdom and around the world. We must take action now to prepare for the further, inevitable changes we can expect.”

Harris will be acting in her constitutional role as president of the Senate when she gives the oath of office to two Democrats elected in a Georgia special election this month and to her own successor to the California seat she resigned Monday. But the ceremony will also illustrate how important the Senate will be to the start of her tenure as vice president in the Biden administration. With the Senate divided 50-50 between Republicans and Democrats, and President-elect Joe Biden hoping to pass ambitious legislation on the coronavirus, the economy, climate change and other policy matters, Harris — who as vice president will break any tiebreaking votes — may find herself returning often to the Capitol. “There’s definitely going to be a demand, I think, in a 50-50 Senate, like I’ve never seen in the Senate before,” said Sen Cory Booker, D-NJ. “For the Biden-Harris agenda, she will be in Congress very, very often or reaching out to senators very often to try to push that agenda through,” Booker said. An aide to Harris said that she had already begun reaching out to other senators about White House nominations, including that of retired Gen. Lloyd Austin III to be secretary of defense. But Harris, 56, is sure to be far more than a 51st Democratic senator to Biden. She will bring to her history-making role at the White House an array of skills that Biden will draw on, including the prosecutorial chops that she displayed in Senate Judiciary Committee hearings, her personal energy that balances Biden’s low-key approach and the voice she will offer to women and people of color. “She’ll bring a justice lens, a racial justice lens, racial equity, to everything and every policy and every decision that’s going to be made,” said Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Calif., a longtime ally of Harris. “That’s so important, to have a Black woman, a South Asian woman’s perspective, on the big issues that this administration has to tackle.” Current and former aides to both Biden and Harris say that while dealing with the Senate will be important to her job, she has not been assigned a specific issue portfolio, at least at the outset, and will instead serve as a governing partner to Biden on all of his top priorities. If fulfilled, that mandate could make her among the most influential vice presidents in history. In one sign of how much she may be involved in legislative campaigns, Harris has been in touch with mayors around the country to preview Biden’s coronavirus relief package, the Biden aide said. It's an honor to be your Vice President. pic.twitter.com/iM3BxJzz6E— Vice President Kamala Harris (@VP) January 20, 2021   It's an honor to be your Vice President. pic.twitter.com/iM3BxJzz6E From the moment that Harris was chosen as Biden’s running mate, Republicans sought to paint her as a radical who would co-opt the more centrist Biden agenda and push any administration far to the left, often relying on sexist personal attacks in the process. Yet while Harris and Biden had sharp disagreements on a number of issues during the primary, as his running mate she made a point at every turn to demonstrate that she not only embraced his agenda but also had studied his proposals in detail and was fully on board as his partner. She may face inherent challenges, however, including finding her place in a West Wing stocked with veterans of the Obama White House who have known and worked with one another for years and advising a president with deeply fixed ideas of how Washington operates. And given speculation that the 78-year-old Biden may not seek a second term in office, Harris, who mounted her own unsuccessful 2020 White House bid, is sure to face scrutiny about her electoral future much earlier than did her predecessors. One factor that may work in Harris’ favor is Biden’s own experience as vice president, especially at the beginning, when he joined an Obama White House team that at times had a clubby quality. Harris’ allies hope and expect that Biden — and many of the aides who worked with him, like the incoming chief of staff, Ron Klain — will remember what it was like to be “on the other side” and ensure that Harris and her team are included and empowered. “So many people in the Biden orbit are sympathetic to what it’s like to sit on the OVP side,” said Liz Allen, a former aide to the Biden-Harris campaign, using the official abbreviation for the Office of the Vice President. “I think people are going to be jumping through hoops to make sure she can break through.” Harris and Biden bring starkly different political profiles to the new administration. When Biden walks into the White House on Wednesday, he will be returning to a building he knows intimately from eight years as vice president and countless visits during a 36-year Senate career. Harris, who was in the Senate for less than one term, has had far less exposure to the inner workings of a presidential administration. Their differences in many ways flip the dynamic that existed between Biden and former President Barack Obama. Back then, Obama was a young, relative newcomer to the capital seeking experience and credibility with working-class white America. Biden, a Beltway veteran, was his West Wing partner. In this case, Harris will play the role of relative Washington newcomer and offer Biden, the consummate insider, a starkly different perspective on the world and a bridge to a diverse nation. Vice President-elect Kamala Harris and her husband Doug Emhoff arrive for her inauguration at the Capitol in Washington on Wednesday, Jan. 20, 2021. (Erin Schaff/The New York Times) Sometimes she may also offer him a decisive vote. Although the Senate filibuster means that much legislation requires 60 votes to pass, Biden and Chuck Schumer, D-NY, who will become the Senate majority leader, may turn to the parliamentary tactic of budget reconciliation, which prohibits the filibuster and allows for 51-vote approvals. Vice President-elect Kamala Harris and her husband Doug Emhoff arrive for her inauguration at the Capitol in Washington on Wednesday, Jan. 20, 2021. (Erin Schaff/The New York Times) Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del, said he hoped that Harris would wind up “less as the tiebreaking vote but more as a consensus-builder” to help Biden win bipartisan majorities for his agenda. But bipartisanship has been in short supply, and Democrats expect Biden to operate on narrow legislative margins. “If not, she will indeed have to be a regular presence in the Senate,” Coons allowed. As vice president, Biden himself cast no tiebreaking votes. But Vice President Mike Pence was required to break deadlocks 13 times over the past four years. More broadly, Biden will most likely feel that he needs little guidance in the workings of an institution where he served for so long and where Harris spent just four years. But Harris has relationships with newer members of the Senate with whom Biden did not overlap. One early task for Harris will be ramping up her national security expertise. Aides say that she will support Biden’s broader agenda of reengaging with allies, dealing with the challenges China presents and combating climate change. But she is likely to pay particular interest to certain issues, including global health and democracy, and human rights. Harris also has a strong interest in cybersecurity, informed by her service on the Senate’s Intelligence and Homeland Security Committees. Biden has suggested that he sees himself as a “bridge” to the next generation of leaders — and many Democrats expect that Harris would be a part of that next generation. If Biden does not run again, Harris would almost certainly be considered the early Democratic front-runner for 2024. Robert Shrum, who served as a top political strategist to former Vice President Al Gore, whose presidential aspirations during President Bill Clinton’s second term were widely understood, said that Harris should focus only on serving Biden, not pursuing an independent political profile. “I think she will be very careful to do her job as vice president, and unless and until he tells her and tells the country that he’s not ready to run again, she’s not going to focus on that at all,” Shrum said. “There’s no doubt in my mind that she’s going to be a full partner and an integral one. Why? There’s way too much work to do,” said Michael Feldman, a longtime White House aide to Gore. “This is not a situation where the president-elect and vice president-elect have the luxury of writing down and divvying up policy portfolios and assignments.” © 2021 The New York Times Company

Trump told members of the gun lobby at an annual meeting he intends to revoke the status of the United States as a signatory to the Arms Trade Treaty, which was never ratified by the US Senate. “We’re taking our signature back,” Trump said to thousands of cheering attendees, many wearing red hats emblazoned with the Republican president’s “Make America Great Again” slogan. On Twitter, Trump called the decision a defense of “American sovereignty.” In reversing the US position on the pact, he wrote, “We will never allow foreign bureaucrats to trample on your Second Amendment freedoms.” The NRA has long opposed the treaty, which regulates the $70 billion business in conventional arms and seeks to keep weapons out of the hands of human rights abusers. The lobbying group argues it would undermine domestic gun rights, a view the Obama administration rejected. The agreement covers weapons exports, ranging from small firearms to tanks, but not domestic sales. Trump said the United Nations would soon receive formal notice of the withdrawal. UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric called the treaty “a landmark achievement in the efforts to ensure responsibility in international arms transfers.” UN officials said they were unaware Trump had been planning to revoke the US signature. The NRA spent $30.3 million in support of Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a group that tracks campaign spending. The 193-nation UN General Assembly overwhelmingly approved the pact in April 2013 and the United States, the world’s No. 1 arms exporter, voted in favor of it despite fierce opposition from the NRA. Dropping out of the treaty is part of a broader Trump administration overhaul of arms export policies to bolster a domestic industry that already dominates global weapons trade. Trump’s action drew an immediate rebuke from international human rights groups. “The United States will now lock arms with Iran, North Korea and Syria as non-signatories to this historic treaty whose sole purpose is to protect innocent people from deadly weapons,” said Oxfam America President Abby Maxman. So far 101 countries have formally joined onto the treaty. Another 29, including the United States, signed it, but have not yet formally joined. Ted Bromund, senior research fellow at the conservative Heritage Foundation, said the treaty “can only have the perverse effects of driving potential importers to buy from China or Russia” and other nations that are not party to the agreement. Rachel Stohl, director of the conventional defense program at the Stimson Center think-tank in Washington, said US firearms makers could benefit, including Smith & Wesson owner American Outdoor Brands Corp, Sturm Ruger and Vista Outdoor, as well as Remington Outdoor Co, which owns Bushmaster, a brand of AR-15 assault rifle. Trump was joined on his trip to the NRA’s meeting in Indianapolis by White House national security adviser John Bolton, an advocate of withdrawing the United States from international treaties out of concern they might undermine US authority. With Friday’s announcement, Trump continued his drive to roll back Obama-era initiatives. Nearly two years ago, Trump announced that the United States would withdraw from the Paris Climate Agreement, which aims to reduce global carbon emissions that scientists link to harmful climate change. Republicans argue the US economy would suffer if it met the deal’s carbon-reduction goals. In May, 2018, Trump pulled the United States out of a 2015 international deal that eased sanctions on Iran in exchange for strict limits being placed on Iran’s nuclear activities. The United States has since reimposed some sanctions that had been suspended under the deal. Friday’s speech marked the third consecutive year Trump has spoken to the annual meeting of the NRA. Since his election, he has been a vocal proponent of gun rights, a position that plays well with his political base. Trump banned “bump stocks” - rapid-fire gun attachments used in the October 2017 mass shooting that killed 58 people at a country music festival in Las Vegas. But he has sidestepped tough restrictions he considered after the February 2018 shooting at a high school in Parkland, Florida, in which 17 people were killed and embraced an NRA proposal for arming teachers to defend schools.

MAKUHARI, Japan, Sun Mar 16, (bdnews24.com/Reuters) - A grouping of the world's top greenhouse gas emitters on Sunday backed UN-led efforts to forge a global pact to fight climate change but disagreed on a sectoral approach to curb emissions from industry. G20 nations ranging from top carbon emitters the United States and China to big developing economies Brazil, Indonesia and South Africa held three days of talks near Tokyo to discuss ways to tackle rapidly rising emissions. "It's not so much these two groups are at loggerheads with each other, they are also thinking of how they can cooperate collectively," Halldor Thorgeirsson of the UN Climate Change Secretariat told Reuters. The developing world is demanding rich states do more to curb their own emissions and help poorer countries pay for clean technology. Both sides managed to bridge differences in Bali last December to launch two years of talks on a pact that binds all nations to emissions curbs to replace the Kyoto Protocol. "The whole debate on climate change is moving away from just being an issue of targets to being an issue of how to reduce emissions," said Thorgeirsson, who was pleased with the G20 talks that were billed as a dialogue, not a negotiation. "This is a very good sign that the good spirit of Bali will prevail in Bangkok as well," he said, referring to the March 31-April 4 meeting in the Thai capital, the first U.N.-led climate meeting of nations that backed the "Bali roadmap". But some G20 members and delegates voiced concern over Japan's proposal for sectoral caps for polluting industries. Japan wants top greenhouse gas emitting nations to assign near-term emissions targets for each industrial sector which, added up, would then form a national target. But it was unclear if this target was mandatory or voluntary and developing nations said the scheme needed to take into account their individual circumstances. "It is clear that developed and developing countries are still far apart on sectoral approaches," South African Environment Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk told Reuters. DIFFERENCES Slovenia, which holds the rotating presidency of the European Union, was more guarded. "We all agree that a sectoral approach is needed," said Andrej Kranjc of Solvenia's Ministry of the Environment and Spatial Planning. "Only this Japanese proposal is a little different from the understanding of others, including the European Union. Let's say it has potential, we all agree on that." Indonesia called for more funding and the transfer of clean energy technology. Otherwise a sectoral approach would not work. "The goal is the same for developed and developing countries, but there are big differences in thinking," said Japanese Trade Minister Akira Amari. The talks in Chiba, near Tokyo, also sparked a row over big developing nations being labeled "major emitters", a term U.S. officials used at the gathering. South Africa, Indonesia, India and Brazil told the meeting they objected to the label since on a per-capita basis, their carbon emissions were a fraction of the roughly 24 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent produced by the average American. Developing nations also called for more clarity on the funding and management of schemes to pay for clean energy technology projects in their countries. Van Schalkwyk said on Saturday it was crucial developing nations had greater involvement in the management of clean technology funds, particularly recently announced funds to be managed by the World Bank with money from Japan, the United States and Britain. About 190 nations agreed in Bali to try to find a replacement for the Kyoto Protocol by the end of 2009. Under the Bali roadmap, all nations would be obligated to curb carbon emissions under Kyoto's successor from 2013. Kyoto first phase ends in 2012 and binds only rich nations to emissions curbs. But rapidly rising emissions from developing nations means the pact is no longer effective in trying to limit dangerous climate change that scientists say will cause rising sea levels and greater extremes of droughts and floods. -- For Reuters latest environment blogs click on:

Described as a "pivotal moment" by NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, the summit aims to turn the page on four tense years with Biden's predecessor Donald Trump, who shook confidence in the Western alliance by calling it "obsolete". For the 30 allies meeting in Brussels, diplomats say nothing could be further from the truth, looking to the nuclear-armed alliance founded in 1949 to help deal with threats from extreme weather that can worsen conflicts to Russian attempts to undermine Western democracies through covert attacks. "NATO owes it to the billion people we keep safe every day to continually adapt and evolve to meet new challenges and face down emerging threats," British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who hosted Biden and other G7 leaders in Cornwall, England, said in prepared remarks on the Brussels' summit eve. Russia's efforts to divide the West are likely to run through discussions, diplomats said, ahead of a meeting between Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday in Geneva. Since Russia's 2014 annexation of Crimea, NATO has modernised its defences but remains vulnerable to cyber attacks and disinformation, although Moscow denies any attempts to destabilise NATO allies. "Cyber threats can emerge at any point during a crisis and trigger misunderstandings and unintended signals ... that could precipitate war," the European Leadership Network (ELN) research group said in a paper released for the summit. But foremost in leaders' minds, diplomats say, is a need to hear Biden recommit the United States to NATO's collective defence after the Trump era. Trump's confrontational rhetoric towards allies from 2017 to 2019 at NATO summits created an impression of crisis, envoys said. China's growing military and economic presence in the Atlantic, including joint military drills with Russia, will prompt a strong response from leaders. A pledge to make NATO militaries carbon-neutral by 2050 is also expected. G7 leaders agreed on Sunday to raise their contributions to meet a spending pledge of $100 billion a year by rich countries to help poorer countries cut carbon emissions and cope with global warming. 

The United States, Europe and other nations will spend about $100 billion on projects to fight climate change under economic stimulus plans, raising questions about how much support the industry needs. Spending money through a recession to boost jobs is well established, but the long term value-for-money of current support for clean energy is questioned. Political and business leaders have called for "green growth" spending over the next two to three years to boost fossil fuel alternatives and cut carbon emissions, and create jobs and help a sector wilting in the downturn. Many energy alternatives including wind and solar are not yet cost-competitive with fossil fuels, and so need incentives. "The fiscal stimulus simplifies things. It says -- let's not worry about cost efficiency but get things moving ... give the money to somebody making something we want," said Nick Mabey, head of the London-based environment group E3G. But in the longer term European supports need to be more transparent, Mabey said, arguing that suppliers should bid to produce low-carbon electricity, as in some parts of the United States, rather than get fixed price support as now. "If we're trying to push a big transformation you want it to be cost-effective." "The (European) system just makes everything untransparent and gives lots of opportunities for people to get excess profits. It doesn't seem the best bargain for the consumer or the government." An additional question is just how much government help electricity producers, for example, need to produce low-carbon power, rather than invest off their balance sheet. The EU will force all west European utilities from 2013 to pay for every ton of carbon emissions, a strong driver for them to invest now in wind power, for example. But utilities argue that the economics of offshore wind projects, in particular, are finely balanced as a result of lower oil and gas prices. Exactly how much support they need is difficult to predict. "This is simply arm-wrestling with the government over who pays what," said Michael Liebreich, head of researchers New Energy Finance. "The problem we've got is that calculations (of support) were done at energy prices probably higher than current prices, and they've gone back and said this project is now marginal." "Why not use this opportunity to get 200 million of tax breaks (under a fiscal stimulus)?" One area that public investment is needed is in power grids and other networks to connect new, renewable sources of energy. "The argument of value for money can only be pushed to a certain level, for example you need significant investment in new infrastructure," said HSBC analyst Joaquim de Lima. ZERO The United States is expected this month to agree about $75 billion spending on climate change related projects. European countries have proposed about 10 billion euros ($13.03 billion), and other countries have similar plans. Asset managers are especially excited about Obama's initiative, because this is a policy shift in a country where huge private sector funds have barely invested in listed clean energy companies to date, fund managers say. But it is not just public equity financing that clean energy companies need. Bank lending is a key plank of project financing and has come to a standstill. Falling oil prices have not helped. One of the cheapest forms of alternative energy, onshore wind, is competitive at a $55 oil price -- estimates investors Impax Asset Management -- far above Thursday's price of $40. Zero growth in investment in climate-related companies is expected this year, at about $150 billion, compared with 60 percent annual growth from 2006-07, say New Energy Finance. That assumes a pick-up later this year. Growth could be faster if the Obama administration pushed through a federal minimum standard for producing renewable energy. Less investment will mean fewer installations. Solar power will not match its breakneck 55 percent annual growth of the past five years, said Citi analysts. Wind power growth may fall to about 20 percent from nearly 30 percent last year, estimated New Energy Finance. A bright spot from the recession will be falling equipment prices. A lack of project finance now is flipping kit shortages into over-capacity in the wind industry and a glut of solar panels. Solar-grade silicon prices will fall by more than 30 percent and wind turbine prices by up to 15 this year, according to New Energy Finance. That will hurt manufacturers but aid developers and operators -- now top picks for investors.

Scientific understanding of the virus changes by the hour, it seems. The virus spreads only by close contact or on contaminated surfaces, and then turns out to be airborne. The virus mutates slowly, but then emerges in a series of dangerous new forms. Americans do not need to wear masks. Wait, they do. At no point in this ordeal has the ground beneath our feet seemed so uncertain. Just last week, federal health officials said they would begin offering booster shots to all Americans in the coming months. Days earlier, those officials had assured the public that the vaccines were holding strong against the delta variant of the virus, and that boosters would not be necessary. As early as Monday, the Food and Drug Administration is expected to formally approve the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, which has already been given to scores of millions of Americans. Some holdouts found it suspicious that the vaccine was not formally approved yet somehow widely dispensed. For them, “emergency authorization” has never seemed quite enough. Americans are living with science as it unfolds in real time. The process has always been fluid, unpredictable. But rarely has it moved at this speed, leaving citizens to confront research findings as soon as they land at the front door, a stream of deliveries that no one ordered and no one wants. Is a visit to my ailing parent too dangerous? Do the benefits of in-person schooling outweigh the possibility of physical harm to my child? Will our family gathering turn into a superspreader event? Living with a capricious enemy has been unsettling even for researchers, public health officials and journalists who are used to the mutable nature of science. They, too, have frequently agonised over the best way to keep themselves and their loved ones safe. But to frustrated Americans unfamiliar with the circuitous and often contentious path to scientific discovery, public health officials have seemed at times to be moving the goal posts and flip-flopping, or misleading, even lying to, the country. Most of the time, scientists are “edging forward in a very incremental way,” said Richard Sever, assistant director of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press and a founder of two popular websites, bioRxiv and medRxiv, where scientists post new research. “There are blind alleys that people go down, and a lot of the time, you kind of don’t know what you don’t know.” Biology and medicine are particularly demanding fields. Ideas are evaluated for years, sometimes decades, before they are accepted. Researchers first frame the hypothesis and then design experiments to test it. Data from hundreds of studies, often by competing teams, are analysed before the community of experts comes to a conclusion. Children arrive for the first day of school at August Schilling Elementary School in Newark, Calif, on Aug 12, 2021. In the interim, scientists present the findings to their peers, often at niche conferences that are off-limits to journalists and the general public, and hone their ideas based on the feedback they receive. It is not unusual to see attendees at these meetings point out — sometimes harshly — every flaw in a study’s methods or conclusions, sending the author back to the lab for more experiments. Children arrive for the first day of school at August Schilling Elementary School in Newark, Calif, on Aug 12, 2021. Fifteen years elapsed from the description of the first cases of HIV to the identification of two proteins the virus needs to infect cells, a finding crucial to research for a cure. Even after a study has reached a satisfying conclusion, it must be submitted for rigorous review at a scientific journal, which can add another year or more before the results become public. Measured on that scale, scientists have familiarised themselves with the coronavirus at lightning speed, partly by accelerating changes to this process that were already underway. Treatment results, epidemiological models, virological discoveries — research into all aspects of the pandemic turns up online almost as quickly as authors can finish their manuscripts. “Preprint” studies are dissected online, particularly on Twitter, or in emails between experts. What researchers have not done is explain, in ways that the average person can understand, that this is how science has always worked. The public disagreements and debates played out in public, instead of at obscure conferences, give the false impression that science is arbitrary or that scientists are making things up as they go along. “What a nonscientist or the layperson doesn’t realise is that there is a huge bolus of information and consensus that the two people who are arguing will agree upon,” Sever said. Is it really so surprising, then, that Americans feel bewildered and bamboozled, even enraged, by rapidly changing rules that have profound implications for their lives? Federal agencies have an unenviable task: Creating guidelines needed to live with an unfamiliar, rapidly spreading virus. But health officials have not acknowledged clearly or often enough that their recommendations may — and very probably would — change as the virus, and their knowledge of it, evolved. “Since the beginning of this pandemic, it’s been a piss-poor job, to say it in the nicest way,” said Dr Syra Madad, an infectious disease epidemiologist at the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard University. Leaders in the United States and Britain have promised too much too soon, and have had to backtrack. Health officials have failed to frame changing advice as necessary when scientists learn more about the virus. And the officials have not really defined the pandemic’s end — for example, that the virus will finally loosen its stranglehold once the infections drop below a certain mark. Without a clearly delineated goal, it can seem as if officials are asking people to give up their freedoms indefinitely. One jarring backtrack was the mask guidance by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The agency said in May that vaccinated people could drop their masks, advice that helped set the stage for a national reopening. Officials did not emphasise, or at least not enough, that the masks could be needed again. Now, with a new surge in infections, they are. “It can be really difficult for public perception and public understanding when these big organisations seem to reverse course in a way that is really not clear,” said Ellie Murray, a science communicator and public health expert at Boston University. It does not help that the CDC and the World Health Organisation, the two leading public health agencies, have disagreed as frequently as they have in the past 18 months — on the definition of a pandemic, on the frequency of asymptomatic infections, on the safety of COVID-19 vaccines for pregnant women. Most Americans have a decent grasp of basic health concepts — exercise is good, junk food is bad. But many are never taught how science progresses. In 2018, 15-year-olds in the United States ranked 18th in their ability to explain scientific concepts, lagging behind their peers in not just China, Singapore and the United Kingdom, but also Poland and Slovenia. In a 2019 survey by the Pew Research Center, many Americans correctly identified fossil fuels and the threat of antibiotic resistance, but they were less knowledgeable about the scientific process. And basic tenets of public health often are even more of a mystery: How does my behaviour affect others’ health? Why should I be vaccinated if I consider myself low-risk? “People weren’t primed before to understand a lot of these concepts,” Madad said. “We should have known that we couldn’t expect the public to change their behaviours on a dime.” Both information and disinformation about COVID-19 surface online, especially on social media, much more now than in previous public health crises. This represents a powerful opportunity to fill in the knowledge gaps for many Americans. But health officials have not taken full advantage. The CDC’s Twitter feed is a robotic stream of announcements. Agency experts need not just to deliver messages, but also to answer questions about how the evolving facts apply to American lives. And health officials need to be more nimble, so that bad actors do not define the narrative while real advice is delayed by a traditionally cumbersome bureaucracy. “They’re not moving at the speed that this pandemic is moving,” Murray said. “That obviously creates a perception in the public that you can’t just rely on those more official sources of news.” In the middle of a pandemic, health officials have some responsibility to counter the many spurious voices on Twitter and Facebook spreading everything from pseudoscience to lies. Risk communication during a public health crisis is a particular skill, and right now, Americans need the balm. “There are some people whose confidence outweighs their knowledge, and they’re happy to say things which are wrong,” said Helen Jenkins, an infectious disease expert at Boston University. “And then there are other people who probably have all the knowledge but keep quiet because they’re scared of saying things, which is a shame as well, or just aren’t good communicators.” Health officials could begin even now with 2-minute videos to explain basic concepts; information hotlines and public forums at the local, state and federal levels; and a responsive social media presence to counter disinformation. The road ahead will be difficult. The virus has more surprises in store, and the myths that have already become entrenched will be hard to erase. But it is not too much to hope that the lessons learned in this pandemic will help experts explain future disease outbreaks, as well as other urgent problems, like climate change, in which individual actions contribute to the whole. The first step toward educating the public and winning their trust is to make plans, and then communicate them honestly — flaws, uncertainty and all.   © 2021 The New York Times Company

Guaranteeing individual fishermen a share of the catch could help avert a global collapse of fisheries, U.S. researchers said on Thursday. Such programs, known as catch-shares, eliminate the frantic race to get the biggest share of the catch as in traditional open-access fishing, a system that promotes overfishing and habitat destruction, putting a key global food supply at risk. "Under open access, you have a free-for-all race to fish, which ultimately leads to collapse," said Christopher Costello of the University of California, Santa Barbara, whose study appears in the journal Science. "But when you allocate shares of the catch, then there is an incentive to protect the stock, which reduces collapse. We saw this across the globe," he said in a statement. Costello said the study offered hope that fisheries can resist the widespread collapse projected two years ago by Canadian Boris Worm of Dalhousie University in Halifax. Climate change and pollution compound the threat to global fisheries, which supply protein to 2.6 billion people worldwide. Costello and colleagues studied 50 years of data from 11,000 fisheries around the world. "What we found is a management system called catch shares reverses the global trend in fishery failures," he said in a telephone briefing. Catch shares, which are common in New Zealand, Australia, Iceland, and increasingly the United States and Canada, grant each shareholder a fixed portion of a fishery's total allowable catch, a figure set by scientists each year. These shares may be bought and sold, much like shares in a company. They increase in value as the overall fish population increases in size, giving each shareholder a stake in improving the overall health of the fishery. "Fisheries managed by this approach are dramatically less likely to collapse," Costello said. Costello said only about 1 percent of global fisheries have adopted this new management system, but those that have are half as likely to collapse as those using traditional management systems. "We found that fish fare far better when people directly benefit from taking just the right number of fish from the water," said Steven Gaines of UCSB, who worked on the study. "Fish populations rebound, and so do yields from the fisheries," Gaines told reporters. He pointed to the Alaskan halibut fishery as an example of success. Before the switch to a catch share system in 1995, the only way to control the overall catch was to shrink the total season, which went from four months to just two to three days. This forced Halibut fishermen to use dangerous fishing methods, loading down their boats with frozen fish and compromising the quality of their catch. Now, the season lasts nearly eight months, and because they can properly store and manage the fish they catch, they can charge more for it. "Halibut fishermen were barely squeaking by, but now the fishery is insanely profitable," Gaines said.

The months of February, March and April had monthly average CO2 levels higher than 400 parts per million (ppm), the first time in recorded history all three months have reached such levels, according to the keystone Mauna Loa observatory in Hawaii. These rising levels have growing relevance for India, as it struggles with a farm crisis brought on by uncertain rainfall, attributed increasingly to climate change, as IndiaSpend recently reported. India is the world’s third-largest emitter of CO2, the chief greenhouse gas. A renewed push for industrialisation will have to be balanced against further climate change. The 400 ppm mark is a milestone when it comes to CO2 levels in the atmosphere, and the first day to record such levels was May 9, 2013. “Current (atmospheric) CO2 values are more than 100 ppm higher than at any time in the last one million years (and maybe higher than any time in the last 25 million years),” said Charles Miller, Principal investigator at NASA’s Carbon in Arctic Reservoirs Vulnerability Experiment after the 400 ppm threshold was passed. “Even more disturbing than the magnitude of this change is the fact that the rate of CO2 accumulation in the atmosphere has been steadily increasing over the last few decades, meaning that future increases will happen faster.” Ever-upward global CO2 levels Last April was the first month in human history with an average CO2 level above 400 ppm. April 2015 recorded a level of 403.26, nearly two points higher than the same month last year. In other words, the records being set by CO2 levels are being consistently reset. The observatory in Hawaii has been recording CO2 levels since 1958, and annual CO2 levels have risen by 82.58 ppm since then to reach 398.55 ppm in 2014, that’s an increase of 1.47 ppm per year. Why this matters to India The rising CO2 levels have been linked by the UN’s intergovernmental panel on climate change (IPCC), in a 2014 report, to rising ocean and land temperatures as well as rising sea levels over the past 35 years. As to how rising CO2 levels have affected or would affect India specifically, it is not clear. Claims in a 2007 IPCC report that the Himalayan glaciers would melt away in the near future have proven to be not credible. However, as we said, a series of studies have shown that unseasonal rain and erratic weather unsettling the Indian farmer - and the nation’s agriculture, economy and politics - are no aberrations. Disquieting data bring domestic pragmatism As the world’s third-largest contributor of greenhouse gas emissions, India may be in a unique position to affect atmospheric levels of CO2. While its total emissions are rising, its per-capita emissions at 1.9 metric tons are a third of the global average, a quarter of China’s and tenth of the USA’s. The path of industrialisation and urbanisation that India adopts will have a significant impact on the world’s warming and its own health status. Already, 13 of the world’s 20 most-polluted cities are in India. India’s stance at various conferences, including the Climate Change Conference in Lima in 2014, has been that it was unfair to demand emissions cuts from developing countries. The argument being that these economies were still growing compared to the developed world, and that such emission levels would be unavoidable if they want to catch up. However, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has set India on an ambitious programme of using nuclear and renewable energy to power its industrialisation, as it attempts to move some of roughly 600 million people working on farms to factories. “I think if you look at the whole world, and the whole issue of climate change, if there is one part of the world which can provide natural leadership on this particular cause, it is this part of the world,” Modi said in an interview to TIME magazine. India may take an uncompromising position globally to protect its own interests, but it’s difficult to ignore the warning signs from Mauna Loa.

WASHINGTON Fri Oct 2, (bdnews24.com/Reuters) - US President Barack Obama is unlikely to sign climate legislation ahead of a UN global warming meeting in Copenhagen that starts in early December, the White House's top climate and energy coordinator said on Friday. "We'd like to be (finished with) the process. That's not going to happen," Carol Browner said at a conference called the First Draft of History. She said the administration is committed to passing comprehensive energy and climate legislation "on the most aggressive timeline possible." Democratic Senators John Kerry and Barbara Boxer unveiled a climate bill this week but it remained unclear whether it would win the required 60 Senate votes for passage. Even if the bill does pass, the Senate and the US House of Representatives would have to reconcile their versions of the bill in committee. That would leave little time for Obama, who has made climate one of his top issues, to sign the bill before 190 nations are due to meet in Copenhagen from early December in hopes of hammering out a successor agreement to the Kyoto Protocol on global warming. The US Congress has been focused on health care legislation, delaying work on the Kerry-Boxer bill. White House spokesman Robert Gibbs told reporters later on Friday that Obama would consider attending the climate talks in the Danish capital if heads of state were invited. Browner said she did not know if a global agreement on binding cuts in greenhouse gas emissions could be made in Copenhagen. But she had hope for progress saying the world's top leaders recognize global warming is a problem. "Copenhagen isn't the end of a process, it is the beginning of a process," she said. The administration has been pleased with recent talks with China, the world's top greenhouse gas polluter, on tackling climate change, she added. STATES Browner expressed optimism Congress would pass the bill in due time but said the administration has options if that did not happen. The US Environmental Protection Agency could work with states that already have formed carbon markets to extend those programs, said Browner, former head of that agency. "That may be a way in which you could form a regime using these models that are already out there," she said. Ten eastern US states have formed the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative to regulate carbon dioxide emissions from power plants. In addition, California and several other states in the West plan to regulate six greenhouse gases from smokestacks and tailpipes beginning in 2012.

Many of Indonesia's islands may be swallowed up by the sea if world leaders fail to find a way to halt rising sea levels at this week's climate change conference on the resort island of Bali. Doomsters take this dire warning by Indonesian scientists a step further and predict that by 2035, the Indonesian capital's airport will be flooded by sea water and rendered useless; and by 2080, the tide will be lapping at the steps of Jakarta's imposing Dutch-era Presidential palace which sits 10 km inland (about 6 miles). The Bali conference is aimed at finding a successor to the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012, on cutting climate warming carbon emissions. With over 17,000 islands, many at risk of being washed away, Indonesians are anxious to see an agreement reached and quickly implemented that will keep rising seas at bay. Just last week, tides burst through sea walls, cutting a key road to Jakarta's international airport until officials were able to reinforce coastal barricades. "Island states are very vulnerable to sea level rise and very vulnerable to storms. Indonesia ... is particularly vulnerable," Nicholas Stern, author of an acclaimed report on climate change, said on a visit to Jakarta earlier this year. Even large islands are at risk as global warming might shrink their land mass, forcing coastal communities out of their homes and depriving millions of a livelihood. The island worst hit would be Java, which accounts for more than half of Indonesia's 226 million people. Here rising sea levels would swamp three of the island's biggest cities near the coast -- Jakarta, Surabaya and Semarang -- destroying industrial plants and infrastructure. "Tens of millions of people would have to move out of their homes. There is no way this will happen without conflict," Environment Minister Rachmat Witoelar said recently. "The cost would be very high. Imagine, it's not just about building better infrastructure, but we'd have to relocate people and change the way people live," added Witoelar, who has said that Indonesia could lose 2,000 of its islands by 2030 if sea levels continue to rise. CRUNCH TIME AT BALI Environmentalists say this week's climate change meeting in Bali will be crunch time for threatened coastlines and islands as delegates from nearly 190 countries meet to hammer out a new treaty on global warming. Several small island nations including Singapore, Fiji, Kiribati, Tuvalu and Caribbean countries have raised the alarm over rising sea levels which could wipe them off the map. The Maldives, a cluster of 1,200 islands renowned for its luxury resorts, has asked the international community to address climate change so it does not sink into a watery grave. According to a U.N. climate report, temperatures are likely to rise by between 1.1 and 6.4 degrees Celsius (2.0 and 11.5 degrees Fahrenheit) and sea levels by between 18 cm and 59 cm (seven and 23 inches) this century. Under current greenhouse gas emission levels, Indonesia could lose about 400,000 sq km of land mass by 2080, including about 10 percent of Papua, and 5 percent of both Java and Sumatra on the northern coastlines, Armi Susandi, a meteorologist at the Bandung Institute of Technology, told Reuters. Indonesia, the world's fourth-most populous country, has faced intense pressure over agricultural land for decades. Susandi, who has researched the impact of climate change on Indonesia, estimated sea levels would rise by an average of 0.5 cm a year until 2080, while the submersion rate in Jakarta, which lies just above sea level, would be higher at 0.87 cm a year. A study by the UK-based International Institute for Economy and Development (IIED) said at least 8 out of 92 of the outermost small islands that make up the country's borders are vulnerable. TOO MANY ISLANDS TO COUNT Less than half of Indonesia's islands are inhabited and many are not even named. Now, the authorities are hastily counting the coral-fringed islands that span a distance of 5,000 km, the equivalent of going from Ireland to Iran, before it is too late. Disappearing islands and coastlines would not only change the Indonesian map, but could also restrict access to mineral resources situated in the most vulnerable spots, Susandi said. He estimates that land loss alone would cost Indonesia 5 percent of its GDP without taking into account the loss of property and livelihood as millions migrate from low-lying coastlines to cities and towns on higher ground. There are 42 million people in Indonesia living in areas less than 10 meters above the average sea level, who could be acutely affected by rising sea levels, the IIED study showed. A separate study by the United Nations Environment Programme in 1992 showed in two districts in Java alone, rising waters could deprive more than 81,000 farmers of their rice fields or prawn and fish ponds, while 43,000 farm labourers would lose their job. One solution is to cover Indonesia's fragile beaches with mangroves, the first line of defence against sea level rise, which can break big waves and hold back soil and silt that damage coral reefs. A more expensive alternative is to erect multiple concrete walls on the coastlines, as the United States has done to break the tropical storms that hit its coast, Susandi said. Some areas, including the northern shores of Jakarta, are already fitted with concrete sea barriers, but they are often damaged or too low to block rising waters and big waves such as the ones that hit Jakarta in November. "It will be like permanent flooding," Susandi said. "By 2050, about 24 percent of Jakarta will disappear," possibly even forcing the capital to move to Bandung, a hill city 180 km east of Jakarta.

India said on Wednesday its first priority was spurring economic growth so that it could eradicate dire poverty and called on G8 countries to keep their promises to deliver significant green house gas reductions. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh told leaders at a meeting of 16 major economies in northern Japan that India must work to help its poor and could not even consider quantitative restrictions on emissions. "The imperative for our accelerated growth is even more urgent when we consider the disproportionate impact of climate change on us as a developing country," Singh said, according to a transcript of his speech to a Major Economies Meeting that included Group of Eight rich countries and major developing ones. India had "little choice but to devote even more and huge resources to adaption in critical areas of food security, public health and management of scarce water resources", he said. Around 600 million Indians do not have access to modern energy sources and a quarter of its population lives on less than a dollar a day. India was also faced with an ever increasing energy bill putting its energy security at risk, Singh said. Developed countries had not shown demonstrable progress on even the low levels of greenhouse gas reductions that had been agreed to, he said. "This must change and you (the G8) must all show the leadership that you have always promised by taking and then delivering truly significant GHG (greenhouse gas) reductions," he said. India is amongst the world's lowest per-capita emitters. Singh also called for greater cooperation on clean technologies between developed and developing countries, faster transfer of those technologies to developing nations and a fairer regime for intellectual property rights. "There is a strong case that critical technologies be treated as global public goods," he said.

The study, conducted by a team of scientists from the Netherlands, Germany, Britain and Sweden, concluded that "until a relatively recent period, Mars's environment was a lot more dynamic" than now.Liquid water is now extremely rare on Mars, but it was more abundant in the past.The planet's tilt has shifted from a slight 15 degrees to a strong 35 degrees over its eons circling the sun, the study said.The proof of this change is the widespread presence of gullies with a medium latitude that became small fan-shaped systems of water capture, the authors said.Mars is now "a very cold and dry planet", which, combined with its thin atmosphere, makes the presence of water on the surface "an exceptional phenomenon", the authors said.The most recent discovery of well-preserved gullies and reservoirs created by slides of debris on the slope of craters indicates that these features have been carved by flowing water "in a recent geological period".The lead researcher, Tjalling de Haas, of the University of Utrecht, and his colleagues studied features present on a slope of the Istok crater, which is, at most, about 1 million years old, and they calculated the size of the "slides" of debris and the volume of water present.The "capture areas" on the crater's slopes facing toward Mars's north pole accumulated "centimetres of liquid water" from the melting of ice and that caused "frequent debris slides", the scientists said.The thawing of those regions of Mars occurred in "cyclical periods" of warmer climate caused by changes in the planet's orbit.The findings point to capture areas that accumulated snow and ice masses "much larger" than what scientists previously estimated.Martian slopes with the same polar orientation as the one studied on the Istok crater "are extremely active environments where the frequency of debris slides was similar to the Earth's in a very recent geological past", the study said. 

Sony Ericsson on Monday entrusted the head of Ericsson's US technology division with the task of leading the struggling cellphone maker back to profit and reversing a sharp decline in market share. The 50-50 venture said it had named Bert Nordberg as chief executive to replace Dick Komiyama, who retires at the end of the year. Sony Ericsson has reported steep losses in past quarters and seen its market share slip to below 5 percent, sparking market speculation of a possible breakup. "I would go for increased market share and restoring profitability," Nordberg told Reuters when asked where he hoped to see the company in one to two years. He said he would pursue ongoing restructuring and step up efforts to develop "smash-hit" products. Nordberg, 53, currently Executive Vice President at Ericsson and head of the firm's Silicon Valley business, said he was extremely confident in the support from both parent companies and that turning to profit "can't be too far away." The firm also said Sony CEO Howard Stringer would become new board chairman on October 15, replacing Ericsson head Carl-Henric Svanberg, who will become chairman of BP Plc in January. "The management changes seem to signal that Sony and Ericsson are prepared to continue working together. That will be reassuring news for Sony Ericsson's staff and customers," said Neil Mawston from Strategy Analytics. Of the top five cellphone vendors, Sony Ericsson saw the sharpest drop in sales from the first quarter. The firm has missed such mobile phone trends as full keyboards, Internet browsing and navigation, and research firm Gartner said last week that Sony Ericsson's market share fell to just 4.7 percent globally. "BIG DECISIONS TO MAKE" "Nordberg has some big decisions to make from day one," said Ben Wood, head of research at CCS Insight. "Sony Ericsson needs to streamline its mobile software strategy and further reduce its dependence on mid-tier feature phones while working to restore profitability in the toughest economic climate the mobile phone industry has ever seen." Sony Ericsson is known for its phones focusing on music and imaging, but so far it has lacked a strong offering of smartphones. Nordberg said he would look for a strategic revamp of the firm's product portfolio. "In this industry you need smash-hit products," he said. Nordberg has been with Ericsson since 1996, prior to which he worked with companies including Data General Corp. and Digital Equipment Corp. In July, Sony Ericsson posted a pretax loss of 283 million euros ($400 million), and said the rest of the year would be difficult, with the overall market to shrink at least 10 percent. "I think it is an effect of them needing a bit of a fresh start, some new blood. In addition to the fact that Sony Ericsson has not performed particularly well during the last year and a half," said Greger Johansson from Redeye. Shares in Ericsson were 0.5 percent lower at 66.90 crowns by 1214 GMT (8:14 a.m. EDT), outperforming a DJ Stoxx European technology index down 1.7 percent.

Energy efficiency for power plants, buildings and cars is the easiest way to slow global warming in an investment shift set to cost hundreds of billions of dollars, the United Nations said on Tuesday. A UN report about climate investments, outlined to a meeting in Vienna of 1,000 delegates from 158 nations, also said emissions of greenhouse gases could be curbed more cheaply in developing nations than in rich states. The cash needed to return rising emissions, mainly from burning fossil fuels, to current levels by 2030 would amount to 0.3 to 0.5 percent of projected gross domestic product (GDP), or 1.1 to 1.7 percent of global investment flows in 2030, it said. "Energy efficiency is the most promising means to reduce greenhouse gases in the short term," said Yvo de Boer, the head of the U.N. Climate Change Secretariat, presenting the report to the Aug. 27-31 meeting. The 216-page report was published online last week. He said the study could help guide governments, meeting in Austria to try to work out a longer-term fight against global warming beyond the UN's Kyoto Protocol. The protocol binds 35 rich nations to cap emissions of greenhouse gases by 2008-12. The report estimates that "global additional investment and financial flows of $200 billion-$210 billion will be necessary in 2030 to return greenhouse gas emissions to current levels", including measures for energy supply, forestry and transport. Energy efficiency in power plants would help, along with measures such as greater fuel efficiency for cars or better insulation in buildings. The study foresees a shift to renewable energies such as solar and hydropower, and some nuclear power. The report also estimates that investments in helping nations adapt to the impact of climate change would run to tens of billions of dollars in 2030, such as treating more cases of disease such as malaria or building dykes to protect beaches from rising seas. It said carbon markets would have to be "significantly expanded to address needs for additional investments and financial flows." Companies are now responsible for about 60 percent of global investments. Experts said the report was the first to try to give a snapshot of the needed investments in one year -- in this case 2030. The report fills in some gaps in a wider picture given by previous reports such as one by former World Bank chief economist Nicholas Stern saying it would be cheaper to confront climate change now than wait to combat the consequences. U.N. reports this year have also projected that warming will bring more heat waves, droughts, disease, disrupt farming, and raise global sea levels. De Boer said investments to developing nations should rise. "The bulk of cost effective opportunities are in developing countries," he said, adding that did not mean that rich nations should seek only to make investments abroad rather than at home. "More than half the energy investment needed is in developing countries," he said. China opens new coal-fired power plants at a rate of two per week to feed its growing economy. Investments in cleaner technology, such as filtering out carbon emissions and burying them, would help, he said.

After a century of broken promises, a paved road linking Kenya to Ethiopia is no longer a mirage for a desert region choked by remoteness. Hurling up a cloud of blinding white dust, Chinese road engineers are helping to lay down the first kilometers of tarmac to replace a 530-km (330-mile) forbidding rock track that joins Kenya's farms and port to landlocked Ethiopia. The stretch of road from Isiolo to Moyale on the border is one of the last unpaved sections of the Great North Road, a British colonial dream to connect Cape Town to Cairo. But where Britain and post-independence Kenyan governments failed, China is leading the way: helping to build a major trade route that will open up the northern half of Kenya, a region that has been effectively sealed off for 100 years. In what is a now familiar sight across Africa, China's drive to secure minerals, oil, and a place for its workers and industries to thrive is converging with Kenyan government plans to tap the potential of undeveloped regions. The road could turn promises of oil into reality and increase tourism and trade in a starkly beautiful land where, until now, only banditry, desolation and poverty had flourished. "This progress is going to benefit the whole area for tourism. Once it is finished, we can already see more trade," said Wu Yi Bao, project manager for the state-owned construction company China Wu Yi (Kenya) Co. China Wu Yi is building the road with 4.3 billion Kenya shillings ($63.94 million) from the African Development Bank (AfDB) and the Kenyan government. According to AfDB estimates, paving the road between Isiolo, 340 km (211 miles) north of the capital Nairobi, and Moyale could boost trade between Kenya and Ethiopia along that corridor fivefold to $175 million from the present $35 million annually. Trade between China and Kenya last year was worth $959 million, a 48 percent rise over 2006, according to the Chinese embassy in Kenya. 'NOT PART OF KENYA' The tarmac of the Cape-to-Cairo road goes missing at the squared-off edge of pavement at the end of Isiolo. Here one finds all the restless bustle of a quintessential border town because residents say it's the frontier between the "Kenya Mbili" -- Swahili for the two Kenyas. "People in the north feel like they are not part of the country," said Hussein Sasura, assistant minister for Development of Northern Kenya and other Arid Lands. "When someone leaves for Nairobi, people say he has gone to Kenya." Hopes are high that the revamped road will draw more tourists and create more revenue for the people living here. But some people are suspicious of China's motives, mirroring the ambivalence towards the Asian giant's investment push felt by many Africans. Residents of some African nations, like Zambia, complain that China is undertaking a second colonization by focusing on Africa's resources and dumping its cheapest goods here. China denies this, and has a 50-year history of bilateral trade and cooperation with Kenya. The Chinese have an immediate interest in rebuilding the first stretch of the Isiolo-Moyale road, so that it can move heavy equipment into Merti, roughly 80 km (50 miles) east of the end of the 136 km (84.5 miles) it has committed to build. China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) and Sweden's Lundin Petroleum AB are carrying out seismic tests for oil in Merti in preparation for drilling next year. Residents in Isiolo have been suspicious of oil exploration since a 1980s venture yielded nothing amid murky circumstances. There are other signs of simmering resentment. One Chinese engineer was shot and killed near the Merille River by shiftas -- or bandits -- on April 21. Tribal elders say he was targeted because of a feeling that not enough men from the area had been employed by the Chinese. Wu said at least 150 of the nearly 200 people on the project were Kenyans and all the day laborers were locals. After the shooting, the Kenyan government sent its elite paramilitary General Service Unit to the Merille River area to disarm youths and provide a security presence. HIDDEN GEMS There is little doubt the road will offer a lifeline to northern Kenya and could signal an end to years of neglect. Under colonial rule, Isiolo was an outpost at the edge of the closed Northern Frontier District, which spanned the top half of Kenya from Uganda and Sudan in the west, across Ethiopia to Somalia in the east. "In those days, Europeans were not allowed to stay there because it was too dangerous and the climate was too harsh. You had to have a permit," said George Cardovillis, a Kenyan descended from Greek traders who wanted to set up shop at the Ethiopia-Kenya border in 1914. The government ordered them to keep going more than 600 km (373 miles) south to Maralal. North of Isiolo to Ethiopia, not much has changed across desolate stretches of black volcanic stones and reddish sands since Cardovillis' forebears trekked south in a donkey train. The sun still blasts shimmering heat waves down from an enveloping sky. Mountains loom in a gunmetal haze across the plains. Water is scarce. Electricity, telephone lines and most other services barely exist. Amid this desolate beauty are some of Kenya's most unspoiled national parks, rarely visited because of their remoteness. Barely 50 km (31 miles) past Isiolo lie three game reserves that rival the famed Maasai Mara for the volume and variety of animals. This is where "Born Free" author and naturalist Joy Adamson settled to raise leopards until her murder. "We think our occupancies will double when the road is finished," said Jayne Nguatah, manager of the Sarova Shaba lodge in Shaba park. "It will be a Christmas gift to us." The Sarova Shaba is built on the banks of the Ewaso Nyiro river, where crocodiles feed and Samburu and Borana herdsmen water their animals. Baboons and monkeys roam the main lodge, which is built like a treehouse and straddles a natural spring. But infrastructure is not the only problem for those seeking to build a viable tourism industry in northern Kenya. Banditry and tribal clashes are common here, thanks to weapons flowing in from past and present conflicts in Ethiopia, Somalia, Sudan and Uganda. And security forces are spread thin. Nomadic herders roam for pasture and water for their sheep, cows, goats and camels, as they have for centuries. But today, some carry AK-47 assault rifles, while others brandish Sterling-Enfield rifles from colonial times. And despite the Chinese engineers' industry near Isiolo, far to the north in Moyale, some people doubt the road will ever reach them. Plans to extend the tarmac beyond the stretch being reworked by the Chinese are still on the drawing board. "For 45 years they have been promising us that road," trader Gumucha Gisiko said, waving his hand dismissively as a frown rose above his red henna beard. "Seeing is believing."

The Christian Social Union (CSU) won 37.3 percent of the vote, preliminary results showed, losing its absolute majority for only the second time since 1962 - an outcome sure to stoke infighting in the conservative party, already a difficult partner for Merkel in Berlin. "Of course today is not an easy day for the CSU. We did not achieve a good result," Bavarian premier Markus Soeder told a gathering of his party. "We accept the result with humility," he said, adding that the CSU nonetheless wanted to form a stable government as soon as possible. The result, which saw the pro-immigration Greens come second and the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) enter the state assembly for the first time, means the CSU will need to form a coalition - a humiliation for a party used to ruling alone. The Greens, who more than doubled their share of the vote to 17.8 percent, attracted support from more liberal CSU voters and from those who traditionally vote for the left-leaning Social Democrats (SPD), who won just 9.5 percent. "The political earthquake was in Bavaria, but the aftershocks will be felt in Berlin ... Talk will increase ever more about the end of the Merkel era," said Fred Kempe, president of the Washington-based Atlantic Council think-tank. Without naming Merkel, SPD leader Andrea Nahles said the "poor performance" of the federal government in Berlin, where the SPD is in a coalition with the conservatives, was one of the reasons for her party's weak showing in Bavaria. "It's clear that something has to change," she said. THORN IN MERKEL'S SIDE Bavarian State Prime Minister Markus Soeder of the Christian Social Union Party (CSU) reacts after first exit polls in the Bavarian state election in Munich, Germany, Oct 14, 2018. Reuters CSU leader Horst Seehofer has been a thorn in Merkel's side since her 2015 decision to open Germany's borders to more than 1 million migrants, gradually shifting his party to the right in an ultimately futile effort to counter the rise of the AfD. Bavarian State Prime Minister Markus Soeder of the Christian Social Union Party (CSU) reacts after first exit polls in the Bavarian state election in Munich, Germany, Oct 14, 2018. Reuters Michael Weigl, political scientist at the University of Passau, said personal attacks on Merkel by Seehofer - who is the federal interior minister - and his hard-line rhetoric against asylum seekers were to blame for the CSU's weak result. "This created a political climate of polarisation from which the Greens and the AfD benefited the most, with their clear stances on immigration," Weigl said. "For the CSU, this strategy backfired." Asked if he would resign as CSU leader, Seehofer told broadcaster ZDF he was not ruling this out but there were many reasons for the party's weak result which had to be analysed. The AfD won 10.7 percent of the vote, the preliminary results showed. The Free Voters, a protest party that is the CSU's most likely coalition party, won 11.6 percent. The CSU has ruled out an alliance with the AfD. INFIGHTING Divisions between Merkel's Christian Democratic Union and the CSU - conservative sister parties - have widened since an inconclusive national election forced them into a coalition in March with the Social Democrats. The Bavarian election is followed in two weeks by another test for Merkel's conservative alliance, known as the Union: her CDU is likely to remain the largest party but lose votes in an election in the western state of Hesse, home to the financial centre of Frankfurt. The CDU then holds its annual congress in December, when Merkel will seek re-election as party chairwoman - a bid senior conservatives have backed despite the parliamentary party ousting her ally, Volker Kauder, as leader last month. Before the Bavarian vote, Merkel urged her CDU and CSU allies to end their infighting. Her fourth and probably final government has already come close to collapsing twice, in arguments over immigration and a scandal over a former spymaster. Jan Techau at The German Marshall Fund of the United States think-tank described Merkel as "exhausted and weakened". "And yet, her strategy to keep the Union firmly in the middle does not look so silly after this result for the CSU," he said. "Whether this temporary reprieve can hold or not will depend on the result in Hesse."

Dhaka, Mar 9 (bdnews24.com)—An international bankers' group has committed to reach financial products to a billion customers, most of who have been left out of traditional banking services. The Global Alliance for Banking on Values, an independent network of 11 sustainable banks, made the commitment on Tuesday at the end of a three-day conference in Dhaka. "The members of the GABV have committed to touch the lives of one billion people by 2020," Fazle Hasan Abed, founder-chairperson of BRAC and co-founder of the GABV, told a press conference. "This is a major new pledge that could transform lives on a truly global scale, and make a substantial difference in our efforts to combat climate change," he added. Representatives from the banks, from Asia to Latin America, gathered to try building a viable future for the financial industry through the three-day seminar that began on March 6. The GABV, initiated in March 2009, uses finance to deliver sustainable development instruments for the unserved people, communities and the environment. It represents around seven million customers in 20 countries, with a combined capital of over $14 billion. It has already announced a commitment to raise $250 million in new capital over three years to support the expansion of $2 billion in lending to green projects and unserved communities around the world. The money is expected to be raised by investors—including existing individual customers, institutions and new investors. The alliance expects that the serving more customers is possible through expansion of the network's membership and by creation of new such banks, according to the statement. The network's members plan to promote and demonstrate the impact of business models which focus on solutions to the world's most urgent social and environmental problems. Peter Blom, chair and co-founder of the GABV, said, "We need to raise more money and invest in the sustainable bankers of the future so we can use this finance to its full potential. "This commitment is an important line in the sand," he added. Blom is the CEO of a GABV member Triodos Bank, based in the Netherlands. "We believe values-led banking can and should make a positive difference to the lives of one in six people within ten years," Blom said. Extending this capital substantially in future years will help to reach the one billion targets, participants from the member banks observed.

Several developing nations rejected on Saturday a climate deal worked out by US President Barack Obama and four major emerging economies, saying it could not become a UN blueprint for fighting global warming. Earlier, European Union nations reluctantly agreed to sign up for the accord worked out at a summit of 120 leaders by the United States, China, India, South Africa and Brazil -- meant as the first UN climate pact since the 1997 Kyoto Protocol. "I regret to inform you that Tuvalu cannot accept this document," said Ian Fry, delegate for the low-lying Pacific island state that fears it could be wiped off the map by rising sea levels. At an extra night session in Copenhagen after most leaders left, he said that a goal in the document for limiting global warming to a maximum rise of 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial times was too lax and would spell "the end for Tuvalu." Delegates of Venezuela, Bolivia, Cuba and Nicaragua also angrily denounced the "Copenhagen Accord," saying it would not help address global warming and was unfairly worked out behind closed doors at the December 7-18 conference. For any deal to become a UN pact it would need to be adopted unanimously at the 193-nation talks. If some nations are opposed, the deal would be adopted only by its supporters -- currently a group of major nations representing more than half the world's greenhouse gas emissions. Even backers of the accord conceded it was imperfect and fell far short of UN ambitions for the Copenhagen talks, meant as a turning point to push the world economy towards renewable energy and away from fossil fuels. Before leaving, Obama said the deal, which holds out the prospect of an annual $100 billion (61.7 billion pound) in aid for developing nations by 2020, was a starting point for world efforts to slow climate change. "This progress did not come easily and we know this progress alone is not enough," he said after talks with China's Premier Wen Jiabao and leaders of India, South Africa and Brazil. "We've come a long way but we have much further to go," he said of the deal, meant to prevent more heatwaves, floods, wildfires, mudslides and rising ocean levels. "The meeting has had a positive result, everyone should be happy," said Xie Zhenhua, head of China's climate delegation. European nations were lukewarm. "The decision has been very difficult for me. We have done one step, we have hoped for several more," said German Chancellor Angela Merkel. She had hoped that all nations would promise deeper cuts in emissions, mainly from burning fossil fuels, during the Copenhagen summit. A goal mentioned in some draft texts of halving world greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, for instance, was dropped. "I came here to Copenhagen wanting the most ambitious deal possible. We have made a start. I believe that what we need to follow up on quickly is ensuring a legally binding outcome," said Prime Minister Gordon Brown. "This is not a perfect agreement. It will not solve the climate threat to mankind.," said Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency. Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd called the deal "a significant agreement on climate change action. It is the first global agreement on climate change action between rich nations and poor countries." But he added "these negotiations have been exceptionally tough. The attitude taken by various countries in these negotiations has been particularly hardline." Many European nations had wanted Obama to offer deeper cuts in greenhouse gas emissions by 2020. But Obama was unable to, partly because carbon capping legislation is stalled in the US Senate. Washington backed a plan to raise $100 billion in aid for poor nations from 2020. The deal sets an end-January 2010 deadline for all nations to submit plans for curbs on emissions to the United Nations. A separate text proposes an end-2010 deadline for transforming the non-binding pledges into a legally binding treaty. Some environmental groups were also scathing. "The city of Copenhagen is a crime scene tonight, with the guilty men and women fleeing to the airport," said John Sauven, executive director of Greenpeace UK. Tensions between China and the United States, the world's two biggest emitters, had been particularly acute after Obama -- in a message directed at the Chinese -- said any deal to cut emissions would be "empty words on a page" unless it was transparent and accountable.

President George W Bush will welcome German Chancellor Angela Merkel to his Texas ranch on Friday where they will seek to show unity on Iran even as Tehran defies the West over its nuclear program. Bush extends invitations to Crawford, Texas, to signal a special relationship and Merkel will spend two days at the 1,600-acre (647.5-hectare) ranch where the leaders may go hiking between talks on world issues. "The Western White House provides a wonderful setting for a social visit, as well as a place to have a wide ranging discussion on many issues," said White House spokeswoman Dana Perino. Merkel will be the second European ally this week to be treated as a special guest by Bush, coming on the heels of French President Nicolas Sarkozy who on Wednesday was given a tour of Mount Vernon, the Virginia home of George Washington, the first US president. With just over a year left in office, Bush is determined to keep up the pressure on Iran over its nuclear program. Iran has refused to agree to UN demands to halt nuclear work that could have both civilian and military uses. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has said Iran's nuclear program is irreversible and that Tehran has 3,000 centrifuges in its underground Natanz plant. As German companies conduct trade with Iran, the United States has taken a stronger stance against Tehran. 'EYE-TO-EYE' "Strategically, we see eye-to-eye. Tactically, there are some slight differences," said Gordon Johndroe, spokesman for the White House National Security Council. Earlier this week Merkel said Germany would support a new round of tougher UN sanctions against Iran if Tehran did not address international concerns about its nuclear program. Bush recently escalated his criticism of Iran by raising the specter of World War Three if the Islamic republic acquired a nuclear weapon, which alarmed some European allies. bdnews24.com/lq/1238hrs The Bush administration insists that it is committed to pursuing diplomacy, but also says all options are on the table. Perino said the two leaders would discuss Iran "and the need for our countries to work together on the diplomatic track to get Iran to halt its uranium reprocessing and enrichment." They will also talk about Afghanistan, the Middle East, Iraq, climate change and economic issues such as the Doha trade round, she said. A senior German official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Merkel and Sarkozy had agreed to voice a common position on Iran, the Middle East peace process, and climate change in their conversations with Bush. Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States are expected to meet this month to discuss reports from the International Atomic Energy Agency on Iran's compliance with international demands. Daniel Benjamin, an analyst at the Brookings Institution, said U.S.-German relations have improved since Merkel took over from Gerhard Schroeder.

The European Union pressed world leaders this week to follow its lead in fighting climate change, but a battle looms at home over how to share the burden of cutting greenhouse gas emissions. The EU in March agreed to cut emissions blamed for global warming by 20 percent by 2020 compared to 1990 levels and 30 percent if the rest of the world joins in. European leaders such as German Chancellor Angela Merkel urged their counterparts at the United Nations to follow suit. "Industrialised countries must embrace ambitious absolute reduction targets," she told the UN General Assembly. But the details of how the EU will achieve its goals are still being worked out, and the main sticking point will be how to divide up the overall target among the 27 member nations. "It will be a battle," Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen told Reuters in an interview in New York. "For all member states, this is a question of basic interests." Countries that take a bigger share of the EU reduction will have to force their power generators and energy-intensive industries to cut back further carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. Circumstances have also changed since the first 15 members of the EU agreed collectively to cut emissions by eight percent by 2012 under the Kyoto Protocol. Now there are 27 member states, and many of the newcomers are former communist countries whose economic catch-up ambitions trump their environmental aspirations. "It's not going to be easy," European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso told Reuters. "I expect, of course, difficult debates but I hope that as always ... in the end we will come to a good compromise." The Commission is set to issue a plan in December that lays out how the targets should be distributed. That legislation, often referred to "burden sharing," will then have to be endorsed by national governments. The EU executive body was working on a fair mechanism to determine each country's burden that would take into account different economic and environmental conditions, Barroso said. "We have 27 different countries, we cannot pretend that the situation is all the same," he said. Polish President Lech Kaczynski, for example, said deeper emissions cuts would be a challenge for his country, which burns coal to generate 90 percent of its electrical power. Help with costly "clean coal" technology would be vital, he told reporters during the U.N. conference. The draft legislation will also include changes to the bloc's emissions trading scheme and national targets for another EU goal of having 20 percent of its energy come from renewable sources by 2020. The proposals are slated to come out just before a UN climate change conference in Bali, where delegates hope to start talks on a successor treaty to the Kyoto Protocol. EU leaders aim to show leadership at that conference, but they may still be squabbling about their own targets. "This is a very critical negotiation process," said Denmark's Rasmussen. "But I think there is a strong political will and a strong political commitment to reach an agreement."

When the dry season sets in, cattle-keepers like Lobunei prepare to drive their herds across the region towards dams or other distant water bodies, negotiating access with communities they find along the way. The time-honoured practise helps local people - known to outsiders as the Karamojong - survive in a harsh environment where rainfall patterns were already volatile from one year to the next before climate change made them even more erratic. But nowadays it is becoming harder for herders to make their seasonal migration, as shrinking access to common land, resurgent insecurity and the deepening presence of the state have made negotiations over resources more formal. Some herders and activists say an overreaching government is undermining the viability of cattle-keeping and pushing them to rely on crop farming, which is vulnerable to drought and floods. In his home district of Nakapiripirit, Lobunei said he is increasingly hemmed in by large farms that are off-limits to his cows and has to skirt around a wildlife reserve that used to let herders through a few decades ago. He must also seek written permission from a growing number of government officials who regulate movement across the grasslands where his forefathers once grazed their cattle freely. "Are we the Karamojong - or is it the government which is the Karamojong?" he pondered. CHANGING SEASONS A 2017 report by the Ugandan government and partner agencies noted that since 1981 Karamoja has seen more extended dry spells and more frequent bursts of heavy rain. And in the future, it warned, a warming planet will make the area's rainfall "more unpredictable, unreliable and intense". Locals report the seasons have shifted, so that the names of the months no longer correspond to the natural events they describe. The month of "lomaruk", for example, is named after white mushrooms that used to sprout in March but now appear months later. Historically, the region's herders could adapt by moving their animals, negotiating access to water and pasture via a mechanism called etamam, or "sending a message", said Emmanuel Tebanyang, a policy analyst at the Karamoja Development Forum (KDF), a civil society group. Elders first hold a series of clan meetings to decide whether to migrate that season, after which scouts are dispatched to seek possible grazing areas. If a host community offers a welcome, a bull will be slaughtered as a sign of peace. But etamam is undergoing "rapid transformation", said Tebanyang, as discussions are increasingly conducted through local government officials, who must provide written permission before migration can begin. The state has sought to control and document movement in Karamoja since colonial times, but in recent decades pastoralists say its presence has become more entrenched. "This is a new culture where everything is done by the government," said Alex Lemu Longoria, who as a Karamojong elder and former mayor of Moroto town has worked in both traditional and official systems. There are now nine districts in Karamoja, up from four in 2005. The carving out of new districts and sub-counties means herders need authorisation from a larger array of officials before they can move across boundaries. "They don't even go now because of that problem," Longoria said. "There's lots of questions being asked (by officials): 'Why are you moving there?'" Another barrier is a new wave of armed cattle-raiding since 2019, as guns have flowed over the border from neighbouring Kenya and South Sudan, making herders more fearful and the authorities stricter. Karamoja police spokesperson Michael Longole said herders have "a free-range system of movement", but the authorities have slapped "a lot of restrictions" on traders transporting cattle across districts. "Our personnel have been moving around telling (traders) that we are tightening this because of the cattle raids," he said. POWER SHIFTS One attempt to bridge the gap between grassroots dialogue and formal processes is the creation of "peace" and "resource-sharing" committees made up of community representatives, said Denis Pius Lokiru, a programme manager at international aid agency Mercy Corps. The organisation has supported the signing of four agreements in Karamoja since 2019, which were witnessed by government officials and incorporated into local by-laws. "These agreements were clearly putting out the modalities on how best water and other natural resources can be shared peacefully without causing any conflict," Lokiru said. The new committees also include more youth and women, said Cecilia Dodoi, vice-chair of the Kotido Women's Peace Forum. "There is now a great change because our voices are listened to," she said, adding many of the women are widows who can testify to the consequences of conflict. But Tebanyang of the KDF wonders whether written agreements are aimed at herders on the grasslands or bureaucrats in offices. "(The herders) don't need these documents," he said. "They have killed bulls... Then we disregard all those symbols and only look for a thumbprint as conclusive evidence of an agreement." MORE CROPS, LESS CATTLE While pastoralism continues to evolve in Uganda, President Yoweri Museveni has promoted sedentary farming in Karamoja. On a 2019 visit, he insisted "everybody must be engaged in modern commercial agriculture", which he argues is more productive. Although many of Karamoja's 1.2 million people have long practiced agropastoralism - combining cattle-keeping with small-scale crop farming - research shows they have been leaning more heavily on agriculture over the past two decades. Analysis of satellite data by researchers at the University of Maryland showed a four-fold increase in the area under cultivation between 2000 and 2011. And a 2018 study by the Karamoja Resilience Support Unit, a research group, found that nearly 60% of households no longer own enough livestock to provide an adequate food supply. But local observers warn against an unbalanced focus on crops in an era of accelerating climate change impacts. "There is nobody who wants to completely abandon livestock," said Simon Peter Lomoe, executive director of the Dynamic Agro-Pastoralist Development Organisation, a Ugandan nonprofit. "If there is drought here, you can still move livestock to look for water. You cannot move crops."

The 22-year-old Ravi, who is part of an organisation founded by Swedish climate change activist Greta Thunberg, appeared in court following her arrest in Bengaluru last weekend in a case that has raised concerns about a crackdown on dissent. Police allege that Ravi was involved in creating and sharing an online document containing advice for protesters. Police say this document stoked the violence that took place on India's Republic Day last month when farmers stormed the famous Red Fort in the old quarter of Delhi. Late on Friday, Thunberg sent out two tweets with a hashtag supporting Disha. "Freedom of speech and the right to peaceful protest and assembly are non-negotiable human rights. These must be a fundamental part of any democracy. #StandWithDishaRavi," Thunberg said in one of her tweets. Police have registered a case of sedition against Ravi, which carries a life term. "This court remands the accused, Disha Ravi, to judicial custody for three days," judge Akash Jain said. Ravi did not speak herself but denied the accusations against her through her lawyer Siddarth Agarwal, arguing in court that police had no evidence to back them up. "There is nothing against me, please consider this," Agarwal told the court on her behalf. Senior lawyers and lawmakers have criticised the sedition case, disputing the allegation by police that the document in question incited violence. On Saturday, a court in Delhi is scheduled to hear Ravi's bail application. Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government has been trying to get farmers to back down from their months-long protest on the outskirts of Delhi against three new laws to deregulate the vast and antiquated farm produce market. It has offered to hold the laws in abeyance and water down some the provisions. But the farmers want Modi to repeal the laws altogether and provide legal backing for minimum price support for their produce. Thunberg also briefly tweeted a link to the document that police are investigating before withdrawing it.

Nusa Dua, Indonesia (Reuters) - India and China objected on Saturday to a draft deal at UN talks in Bali to launch negotiations on a global pact by 2009 to fight climate change, saying rich nations should do more to lead the way. After overnight talks lasting beyond a Friday deadline, India told a 190-nation meeting that it wanted changes to a final text to strengthen the role of rich nations in providing clean technology and finance to help fight global warming. "This is a conspiracy," a Chinese delegate said of a draft text presented to delegates on Saturday by the Indonesian hosts of the December 3-4 meeting in Bali. If the dispute is resolved, the draft would launch two years of talks on a sweeping new long-term treaty to involve all nations and succeed the U.N.'s Kyoto Protocol beyond 2012. Kyoto sets greenhouse gas caps only for 37 rich nations. Many developing nations are unhappy that the draft text cut out a guideline for rich nations to do more and cut emissions of greenhouse gases by 25 to 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2020. But China and India, the number two and four emitters of greenhouse gases, want concessions from the rich before committing to join talks that would oblige them to do more to curb their emissions. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon arrived in Bali on Saturday morning for an unscheduled return to the talks from East Timor. But he put off a planned news conference. Soon after resuming on Saturday morning, the talks were suspended to try to resolve the tangle with Indonesian Foreign Minister Hassan Wirajuda meeting developing nations. EU OPPOSES But Dutch Environment Minister Jacqueline Cramer told Reuters the EU, which backed a draft text presented earlier, said the Indian demands were "unacceptable to the EU". Canada, an early objector to parts of the draft, also said it would support the latest text. Tempers, stretched by days of late-night sessions, showed signs of fraying. A Chinese delegate demanded an apology from organizers when a plenary session reconvened when Wirajuda was still meeting with developing nations. But Indonesian Environment Minister Rachmat Witoelar, hosting the session, shot back: "Time is running out and technically we have to conclude this session." "I am still optimistic," said German Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel. "Everything centers around the question of how much is expected of industrial nations."

A controversial European Union policy called the Renewable Energy Directive drove this transition by counting biomass — organic material like wood, burned as fuel — as renewable energy and subsidising its use. A trans-Atlantic industry developed, logging American forests and processing the material into pellets, which are then shipped to Europe. But critics have long argued that the subsidies actually have few climate benefits and should be scrapped. Late Tuesday in Brussels, a committee of the European Parliament voted to make substantial changes to how the union subsidises biomass and how it counts emissions from burning it — policies with major consequences if passed by the full Parliament. It’s part of a broad package of climate policies that would alter not only the way Europe generates electricity in coming years, but also for how the EU meets its targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. “This vote is a historic breakthrough,” said Martin Pigeon, a forests and climate campaigner with Fern, a nonprofit group focused on European forests. “For the first time, a major EU regulatory body makes clear that one of the EU’s most climate-wrecking policies of the last decade, incentivizing the burning of forests in the name of renewable energy, has to stop.” Wood, of course, is unlike oil or coal because trees can be regrown, pulling planet-warming carbon dioxide out of the air. But it takes a century, on average, for the carbon dioxide emissions from burned wood to be reabsorbed in a growing forest, during which time the released carbon dioxide is contributing to global warming. Burning wood to generate electricity also releases more carbon dioxide than fossil fuels to produce the same amount of energy. But under the previous EU rules, emissions from biomass weren’t counted toward the bloc’s pledges to reduce greenhouse gases. Other changes proposed this week would eliminate most public financial support for biomass, including direct subsidies and indirect measures like rebates or tax credits. The rules also begin to count emissions from biomass and restrict access to certain kinds of “green” financing. Bas Eickhout, a Dutch politician and member of the European Parliament who advocated for the revisions, said they would take the important step of defining “primary woody biomass,” which is essentially wood harvested directly from forests. (The definition agreed to this week offers exceptions for wood sourced from trees damaged by fires, pests and disease.) “This would reduce the incentives for burning wood for energy,” Eickhout said, encouraging the use of industrial waste, like scraps or sawdust, rather than unprocessed wood, as well as shifting the focus to other forms of renewable energy altogether. But not everyone is happy with the proposed changes. A coalition of 10 EU member states, led by Sweden, issued a statement this past winter saying that the amendments risked Europe’s ability to achieve its pledge to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 55% by 2030, compared to 1990 levels. “These frequent changes of the legislative framework undermine the stability of the market and hamper the will to invest in renewable energy,” said Khashayar Farmanbar, the Swedish energy minister, who was one of the letter’s authors. He added that reducing biomass availability would make Europe’s energy transition “more difficult, including to rapidly phase out fossil fuels from Russia.” Representatives of the wood pellet industry also raised objections. “Excluding primary biomass would set back efforts to achieve European energy security, raise energy prices for consumers and put the EU’s climate goals far out of reach,” the US Industrial Pellet Association, an industry group, wrote in a statement. Biomass has seen tremendous growth over the past decade. Before the 2009 passage of the Renewable Energy Directive, which categorised it as renewable, essentially almost no European energy came from biomass. Since then, it has boomed into a $10-billion-a-year industry, and now produces around 60% of what the EU considers renewable energy. These wood-burning plants would be allowed to continue operating under the revised policy, although they would no longer be eligible for subsidies. Last year was the first time biomass in Europe was profitable without government support. This has sparked worries about the continued burning of wood, said Mary S. Booth, an ecologist and director of the Partnership for Policy Integrity, a nonprofit group that promotes data-driven policy. “Burning wood emits carbon,” she said. “It’s basic physics.” The effects of Tuesday’s changes could stretch across the Atlantic to the southeastern United States, where much of Europe’s biomass is harvested. More than 1 million acres of American forest have been cut for biomass, amplifying climate risks like flooding and landslides. Yet this week’s vote is just the first step in a long process. After leaving the Environment Committee, the proposed changes will still need to be adopted by the European Parliament this summer, leaving time for lobbying and further amendments. If the measure passes, national governments would still need to enact the changes into law. In addition to forest products, changes to food and feed-crop biofuel standards were also passed by the committee. Eickhout also argued for changes to limit the use of biofuels in transportation, citing the current food price spikes. This week the committee called for a phase-out of products like palm and soy by as early as next year. These are crops that often lead to land use changes, including deforestation. ©2022 The New York Times Company

Perforated shells discovered in a limestone cave in eastern Morocco are the oldest adornments ever found and show humans used symbols in Africa 40,000 years before Europe, the kingdom's government said. The small oval Nassarius mollusc shells, some dyed with red ochre, were probably pierced to be strung into necklaces or bracelets 82,000 years ago. "This classes the adornments in Pigeon's Cave at Taforalt as older than those discovered previously in Algeria, South Africa and Palestine," the Culture Ministry said in a statement. The find represents "a big step in the understanding of cultural innovations and the role they played in human history." Morocco has yielded important prehistoric finds including one of the oldest known dinosaur skeletons but little is known of the humans that inhabited the region before Berber farmers settled over 2,000 years ago. The shells were found and dated by a team of scientists from Morocco, Britain, France and Germany trying to find out how climate and landscape change affected human behavior between 130,000 and 13,000 years ago. The work is part of a broader study into whether the Strait of Gibraltar dividing Morocco from Spain acted as a corridor or a barrier for early humans trying to move between Africa and Europe.

GENEVA, Sun Sep 28, (bdnews24.com/Reuters) - The hurricane tearing through financial markets has had a muted impact so far on trade flows. But with inadequate regulation widely blamed for the biggest financial disaster since the 1929 Wall Street Crash, the debacle is reinforcing calls to strengthen the rules of commerce by agreeing a new trade deal. "If we can conclude the negotiation we can send a positive signal to the world economy, to business people, because the Doha round is a round of liberalisation of trade and investment," said China's deputy World Trade Organisation (WTO) ambassador, Xiang Zhang. Conversely, failure to agree a deal now after seven years could lead to a new crisis of confidence in business, said Zhang, who was instrumental in steering China into the WTO. WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy still hopes to reach an outline deal on agriculture and industrial goods by the end of the year in the WTO's Doha round, launched in 2001, even though ministers failed to secure a breakthrough in July. Both Lamy and EU trade chief Peter Mandelson warned last week the financial crisis could fan protectionism, which would hurt economic growth, making a new trade deal to secure the benefits of globalisation all the more urgent. The crisis could also monopolise the attention of countries' leaders, distracting them from trade issues and getting a deal. Agreement on a proposed $700 billion bailout for the U.S. financial industry, which could be announced on Sunday, would go some way to easing that concern. DELAYED IMPACT Any trade deal, which would not be finalised until well into 2009 or even 2010 at the earliest, would not have an immediate impact on flows because of implementation periods of 5 years for rich countries and up to 17 years for developing nations. That delayed economic effect would also argue against any immediate financial market impact, as exchange rates or company earnings would respond only later to changing trade flows. A deal would boost business confidence, by showing that barriers to business were coming down, that the world trading system was in good shape, and that the international community was able to cooperate to solve global problems, experts said. In any case, existing WTO deals limit the extent to which countries can raise tariffs, said Fredrik Erixon, head of Brussels trade policy think-tank ECIPE. "I don't think we are going to see a 1930s repetition where a financial crisis is going to lead to tit-for-tat economic nationalism as it did then," he said. The prospects for a new trade deal opening up markets may not seem propitious in a climate where deregulation is blamed for the crisis, and Anglo-Saxon laissez-faire liberalisation has has come under attack from French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Finance Minister Peer Steinbrueck. That atmosphere could hurt one aspect of the talks -- liberalising trade in financial services, diplomats said. But, at a meeting in July where governments signalled a readiness to open up markets to different services, the credit crunch did not seem to force negotiators to hold back on banking. In any case, there is a difference between market access, which is what trade negotiations are about, and financial contagion, which is a matter for regulators, said John Cooke, chairman of the Liberalisation of Trade in Services Committee, which promotes U.K. financial services around the world. "The fact remains that the world will continue to globalise: with more trade and investment there will be more international dependencies between the real economies of different economies. And, as trade and investment develop, they have to be financed." Trade rounds are not just about liberalising commerce but also about drawing up rules for the international trading system that are fair to all countries. For instance in the current Doha round developing countries are seeking the reduction of rich nations' agricultural subsidies, which artificially depress prices, squeezing farmers in poor countries out of the market. Munir Ahmed, secretary-general of the International Textiles and Clothing Bureau, compared such subsidies to short-selling, where investors borrow and sell shares they believe overvalued, hoping to buy them back at a lower price and pocket the difference. The practice has been widely blamed for falls in bank stocks in recent weeks. "The first casualty of a failed Doha round would be the loss of opportunity to set regulations on many areas of international commerce," said Ahmed, a former Pakistani ambassador to the WTO. The financial crisis also adds urgency to a Doha deal by serving as a reminder that good times do not last for ever. With business booming over the past few years, many companies have seen little need to push for a reform to trade rules that would prevent a resurgence of protectionism. So businesses have not lobbied as aggressively for a deal as in previous rounds, and so governments may have felt under less pressure to conclude one. That would mean that unilateral tariff and subsidy cuts they have made could be reversed. "If the financial world goes backwards you can go backwards, and the only bulwark against that is to shrink down the entitlements that people have to go backwards," said New Zealand's WTO ambassador, Crawford Falconer, who chairs agriculture negotiations at the WTO. "I think that's an added reason, not the only reason, it's an added reason which I think has more force than ever before for getting this damned job done now."

The Charge Around Australia project will power a Tesla electric car with 18 of the team's printed plastic solar panels, each 18 metres (59 feet) long, rolling them out beside the vehicle to soak up sunlight when it needs a charge. Paul Dastoor, the inventor of the printed solar panels, said the University of Newcastle team would be testing not only the endurance of the panels but their potential performance for other applications. "This is actually an ideal test bed to give us information about how we would go about using and powering technology in other remote locations, for example, in space," Dastoor said in the town of Gosforth, north of Sydney. Printed solar is a lightweight, laminated PET plastic that can be made at a cost of less than $10 a square metre. The panels are made on a commercial printer originally used for printing wine labels. Dastoor said using the panels to power a car would get Australians to think more about electric vehicles and could help ease their "range anxiety". "(The) community is seeking these sorts of answers to the problems it's being presented with, day in, day out, around climate change," he said. On their 84-day Tesla journey, the team plans to visit about 70 schools to give students a taste of what the future may hold. Asked what Elon Musk, creator of the Tesla car and founder of Tesla Inc, might say about the CAA project, Dastoor said he hoped he would be pleased. CAA was "showing how our innovative technology is now combining with his developments to develop new solutions for the planet", Dastoor said.

Climate protesters expanded their Heathrow airport action on Monday, with small groups demonstrating outside Sizewell nuclear power plant and BP's London headquarters. The Camp for Climate Action spread their protest to Sizewell "A" and "B" on the last day of the week-long Heathrow environmental demonstration held against plans to build a third runway. About six members chained themselves together across the road to the Suffolk plant in an attempt to prevent traffic going into the main entrances. "We oppose the myth that nuclear power is carbon-neutral and a solution to climate change," said Paul Bruce, a spokesman for the camp. The action was organised in protest at government proposals to build new nuclear power stations and to draw attention to the problem of dealing with nuclear waste, the group added. In another protest, about a dozen activists glued their hands to entrance doors at oil firm BP's headquarters in central London. The camp was considering extending its Heathrow protest for three hours until 3 p.m., organisers said. Scuffles broke out at the entrance to the headquarters of the operator of Heathrow airport, BAA, when activists tried to prevent members of staff getting to work. About half BAA's normal numbers turned up, with the rest working at other buildings or from home, a BAA spokesman said. He said protesters had failed to disrupt operations. Bruce however said the demonstrations had been successful. "We never intended to disrupt planes," he said. "Our intention was to blockade BAA's headquarters, which has been successful. "We wanted to highlight the selfishness of business in wanting a third runway, and that has been successful. We have also built a social movement." Between 100 and 150 camp members remain at the site, the BAA spokesman said. About 20 activists have been arrested at the camp, with a further 40 detained at different sites including the Department of Transport and Biggin Hill airport. Eight were arrested on Sunday on suspicion of aggravated trespass after an incident outside a BA world cargo site near Heathrow.

The action, which came on the first day possible under the accord’s complex rules on withdrawal, begins a yearlong countdown to the US exit and a concerted effort to preserve the Paris Agreement, under which nearly 200 nations have pledged to cut greenhouse emissions and to help poor countries cope with the worst effects of an already warming planet. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced the notification on Twitter and issued a statement saying the accord would have imposed intolerable burdens on the US economy. Trump has long held that the accord would cripple growth and intrude on American sovereignty. “The US approach incorporates the reality of the global energy mix and uses all energy sources and technologies cleanly and efficiently, including fossils fuels, nuclear energy, and renewable energy,” Pompeo said. He added that the United States will still maintain a voice in international discussions on global warming. “We will continue to work with our global partners to enhance resilience to the impacts of climate change and prepare for and respond to natural disasters. Just as we have in the past, the United States will continue to research, innovate, and grow our economy while reducing emissions and extending a helping hand to our friends and partners around the globe,” he said. Though American participation in the Paris Agreement will ultimately be determined by the outcome of the 2020 election, supporters of the pact say they have to plan for a future without American cooperation. And diplomats fear that Trump, who has mocked climate science as a hoax, will begin actively working against global efforts to move away from planet-warming fossil fuels, like coal, oil and natural gas. Keeping up the pressure for the kinds of economic change necessary to stave off the worse effects of planetary warming will be much harder without the world’s superpower. “Yes, there are conversations. It would be crazy not to have them,” Laurence Tubiana, who served as France’s climate change ambassador during the Paris negotiations, said in New York recently, adding, “We are preparing for Plan B.” Negotiators spent the early months of the Trump presidency debating strategies for salvaging American support for the accord. Trump proved immovable. A shift in diplomatic strategy has already begun. Making the accord work without the United States will require other major polluters like China and India to step up. China, now the largest emitter of planet-warming pollutants, has made significant promises but Beijing’s ability to deliver is still in question. Under UN rules, China and India are considered developing countries and are not obligated to curb emissions. They agreed to do so as part of the Paris Agreement in large part because the United States was taking action. With the United States out, other industrialized nations will have to press those emerging powers. The European Union held high-level meetings last year in Beijing to confirm the Paris commitment of both the European bloc and China. It also has provided millions of dollars to aid Chinese emissions-control efforts and worked with Canada and other countries to coordinate standards for trillions of dollars of private and public financial investment in clean energy technologies. But so far China has resisted pledging to speed up its initial emissions-control targets, which foresee greenhouse gas emissions rising until 2030. Europe, which is divided itself over how far to scale back coal power, may not have the clout to win new concessions. “The EU is the front line out here. That’s very obvious,” the president of Finland, Sauli Niinisto, said in a recent interview. “The question is, will others listen to Europe?” Some nations are considering more punitive measures. France and Germany this year proposed a European carbon tax to impose on countries with less stringent climate protection policies. “The fact is that we may find the first conflict could come with the United States, and I think that should not be something desirable for anyone,” said Teresa Ribera, minister for the ecological transition of Spain, which is hosting UN climate talks in December. A European tax on goods imported from the United States would be certain to exacerbate trade tensions with the Trump administration. But European companies are concerned that they will face unfair competition from countries with less rigid climate protection when the United States withdraws from the Paris Agreement. But Europe has been threatening such a tax for years and, so far, has not followed through. Meantime, the Trump administration has rolled back Obama-era regulations aimed at curbing greenhouse gases from power plants, oil and gas wells and automobile tailpipes. It also has issued rules making it easier for old coal-fired power plants to operate longer and for new plants to come online. Those actions come amid warnings from UN scientists that, unless countries drastically reduce their emissions over the next decade, the world will exceed 1.5 degrees Celsius of global warming by midcentury, leading to food shortages, worsening wildfires and other threats to civilisation. While no other nation has followed Trump’s lead and left the Paris Agreement — indeed, more countries have joined — few are toughening their emissions-reduction targets. Analysts attributed that to the absence of pressure from the United States, and they warned that the Trump administration’s antagonism toward climate action could dampen future ambitions. Efforts to strategize for the possibility of a second Trump administration are occurring at home and abroad. “Because the community was caught flat-footed by 2016, we want to be in a position to be prepared this time,” said Elan Strait, a former climate negotiator in the Obama administration who worked on the Paris Agreement and who now works at the World Wildlife Fund. In the United States, environmentalists are pressing states, cities and businesses to cut emissions and move to renewable energy sources like solar and wind power. Hundreds of local governments and businesses have made emissions pledges under a movement called We Are Still In, which hopes to show the world that Americans are behind the Paris Agreement even if the administration is not. Those so-called sub-national government pledges are voluntary, and there is no agreed-upon way to calculate how far their efforts are collectively getting toward President Barack Obama’s pledge to cut emissions about 28% from 2005 levels by 2025. Paul Bodnar, managing director for the clean energy think tank Rocky Mountain Institute, said his organisation was finishing a model to analyse progress toward Obama’s Paris pledge. He said the preliminary results offered an “encouraging picture” that he hoped would buoy a worried international community. “Cities, states, and businesses haven’t had a formal place at the negotiating table, but the Paris Agreement succeeded in large part because their voices were heard, and they will keep us moving forward until we have a president who will confront the climate crisis and put the public’s health and safety first,” Michael Bloomberg, the billionaire philanthropist and former mayor of New York City, said in a statement. Bloomberg has started America’s Pledge, an initiative to track efforts by US cities, states and businesses to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. On Monday he also announced that mayors, governors, chief executive officers and environmental leaders will host a “US Climate Action Centre” at the next round of climate negotiations to assume the role the American delegation would have played. Such efforts are expanding internationally. While the Paris Agreement focused on national governments, Tubiana said the actions of states, provinces, businesses and others were driving some of the most concrete changes. The challenge, she said, would be devising ways to turn all of those pledges into a system that can chip away at global emissions. “Whatever happens on the United States side, even if a Democratic candidate would be elected, we have to prepare to have a structure,” she said. The letter to the United Nations on Monday would allow Trump to officially pull the United States out of the Paris Agreement the day after the presidential election. The United States would still be allowed to attend negotiations and weigh in on proceedings but would be downgraded to observer status. Former Vice President Joe Biden on Monday said in a tweet that Trump’s withdrawal from Paris is “shameful” and an abandonment of America’s international leadership. He along with nearly every Democratic presidential candidate has promised that if elected, reentering the Paris accord will be a top priority. The notification of withdrawal all but ensured that climate change would be a major issue in the coming campaign, at least for some voters. But analysts cautioned that even if the United States elects a Democrat in 2020, reentry will not necessarily go smoothly. The Paris Agreement is the second global climate change pact that the United States joined under a Democrat and abandoned under a Republican. George W Bush withdrew the United States from the 1997 Kyoto Protocol. Jonathan Pershing, who served during the Obama administration as the State Department’s special envoy for climate change, said a Democrat rejoining the Paris Agreement would likely be expected to deliver a specific suite of policies showing how the United States intended to move away from fossil fuels. Even then, he said, other countries would be rightly wary that the pendulum of support for climate action could swing back in another election cycle. The United States will have to live with that lingering mistrust, Pershing said. “The United States has been written off in many cases as a partner,” he said. “You just can’t count on them.”   c.2019 The New York Times Company

Global warming, which is threatening the viability of the drought-stricken wine industry in Australia, could be a boon for neighbouring New Zealand which has been enjoying a growing reputation for its quality wines. New Zealand's subtle flavoured wines, mostly whites such as Sauvignon Blanc but also reds such as Pinot Noir, are appearing on the tables of fine restaurants from London to Los Angeles and are winning medals at prestigious international wine shows. Yet despite success at producing quality wines, New Zealand has long had trouble producing wines in significant export quantities due to its weather. New Zealand is one of the world's most southern countries and frosts and biting winds from Antarctica make it hard to cultivate wine-worthy grapes. But that may change. Higher temperatures due to global warming are expected to make cold areas of New Zealand more temperate and better suited to grape cultivation. So it's no surprise that New Zealand wine-growers are upbeat about a future that includes climate change. "The big picture for New Zealand wine is very, very good," said Philip Gregan, chief executive of industry body New Zealand Winegrowers. Wine is only produced in the warmer, drier areas of the country, mainly Gisborne and Hawke's Bay on the east coast of the North Island, and Marlborough at the top of the South Island. But if temperatures in New Zealand rise by one or two degrees as predicted, then wine growing could spread to other regions of the country which are currently too cold or wet to support grapes, Gregan said. "That is going to expand the range of opportunities available to us, and in some ways it may be a positive for us," Gregan said. "We may be able to expand our range of wine styles or we may be able to grow grapes further up the hillsides." Meanwhile, Australia, New Zealand's biggest competitor in the international wine export market, is facing cuts in production and a drop in quality of its internationally renowned wines due to global warming which has helped bring the country's worst drought in a century and may make some areas too hot and dry for grape cultivation. FINE WINES As the summer sun beats down on his tree-lined vineyard, New Zealand winemaker Clive Paton believes the outlook for New Zealand's burgeoning wine industry looks better than ever as global demand for fine wine mushrooms. "Every year the vintages keep getting better and with that the winemakers are also getting better with age," said Paton, who bought a barren 5-hectare block (12.4 acres) and founded the Ata Rangi label 27 years ago. Ata Rangi is based at Martinborough, a wine growing region just over an hour from the capital Wellington. The small town, nestled in a valley, boasts its own unique microclimate which is hotter and drier than the surrounding regions. But the climate is slowly changing. Paton said he has noticed an increasing number of spring frosts. Cold night temperatures can have disastrous results for young fruit on the vine if they become encased in ice as this will kill the fruit. But these frosts are a double-edged sword, because a large swing between day and night temperatures also helps develop the compounds within grapes that produce richer flavours. As wine-growers navigate weather patterns to produce premium grapes, New Zealand wine is winning an international reputation for premium quality. Low volumes mean that wine-growers must focus on producing high quality wines to turn a good profit. A 2005 study by Rabobank, the Dutch-based bank which specialises in the food and agribusiness, found that New Zealand wines fetched the highest price of "New World" wines on the international export market at an average of $5.25 per litre, followed by $2.92 for Australian wines and $2.17 for wines from the United States. The amount of wine the country can produce is and always will be limited, a factor which adds to the premium image. New Zealand wines account for about 1 percent of the world's wine exports. But if grapes can be cultivated on more of the mountainous, volcanic country then New Zealand could cash in on its newfound reputation as a producer of some of the world's finest whites. Sauvignon Blanc from the Marlborough region have been key in establishing New Zealand's reputation. Brands such as Montana and Kim Crawford and Tohu, which have picked up medals at London's International Wine Challenge, have helped reinforce the image. GROWING EXPORTS Wine-growing in New Zealand is almost as old as European settlement, with the first grapes planted by French Missionaries in the Hawke's Bay region of the North Island in the 1850's. The influence of European immigrants was strong in the early days, with settlers such as Josep Babich from Dalmatia and Nikola Delegat from Croatia planting vineyards and founding labels which still bear their names. For more than a century, wine was only drunk locally, with exports beginning in the 1970's and 1980's. In the last 10 years, the value of wine being exported has grown from NZ$75.9 million to NZ$698.3 million, and the industry predicts it will hit NZ$1 billion ($770 million) by 2010. The number of wineries in New Zealand has also expanded from 90 when Paton started in 1990 to almost 600. Paton's story is typical of the small wineries which dominate the industry. The top four winemakers account for more than 60 percent of production. Paton entered the industry out of a love of wine and a desire to have a go at producing his own. "I'm just as interested in it now than I was then. Perhaps more so with every vintage, because you know you're running out of vintages with age," he said. New Zealand wines are due to the climate, which creates unique flavours in the grapes, and the skill of local winemakers in capturing it in the bottle, Paton said. "New Zealand has carved out a niche for itself through its intensely fruity and vibrant dry whites, especially Sauvignon Blanc," said Tom Cannavan in his online wine review www.wine-pages.com. Sauvignon Blanc, still accounts for most of New Zealand's exports, but other varieties are making a name for themselves, such as the Pinot Noir which dominates Ata Rangi's production. Paton said the Martinborough climate is ideal for producing Pinot Noir, but a slight rise in the temperature would be enough to tip the balance. So Paton has been looking at Syrah, also known as Shiraz, getting to grips with the nuances of an alternative variety, in preparation for a potential shift. "Even if it does rise a half or one degree, it's still going to be a great place for growing grapes," said Paton.

And some of the strongest and most urgent calls for action have come from young protesters who say that the world they are inheriting is teetering on the brink of a climate catastrophe. They have spent the week disrupting talks held by gas giants, and staging theatrical spectacles on the fringes of the international event, known as COP26. But the protests will peak Friday and Saturday in two days of demonstrations expected to draw up to 100,000 people. On Friday afternoon, crowds streamed into a leafy public park in central Glasgow for one of the centrepieces of the protest plans. Some protesters were carrying banners reading, “We are running out of time,” “26 years of blah, blah, blah,” and, “System change not climate change.” The youth-led climate strike was organised by Fridays for Future, the international movement that has grown out of Greta Thunberg’s solo school strike that began in 2018. But local unions and other campaigns also gathered in solidarity. Before Thunberg was scheduled to speak, activists from South America, Central America and Africa addressed the crowd, calling out their national leaders for failings in their home countries. Veteran Extinction Rebellion climate activists stood alongside families with young children, union representatives, socialist campaigners and young students skipping school to demand greater action from world leaders to address the issue. “There’s a real responsibility for young people that this will be ours to deal with,” said Eilidh Robb, 26, a Scottish climate activist. “And the mess that we didn’t create will be left to us to manage.” Delegates sit during the UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow, Scotland, Britain, November 1, 2021. Reuters Robb, who is originally from Edinburgh but is now based in Brussels, volunteers with the UK Youth Climate Coalition, a British nonprofit that mobilises young people to take action on climate change. She travelled to Glasgow this week by train with hundreds of others to take part in the conference and in the protests. Delegates sit during the UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow, Scotland, Britain, November 1, 2021. Reuters While world leaders this week managed to secure new agreements to end deforestation and reduce methane emissions, raising hopes of real progress, the coming days will see diplomats haggle over further greenhouse gas reductions. But within the conference, countries are still debating about how they can deliver on the unmet promises of years past, including a pledge of $100 billion in annual climate finance from 2020 to 2025. The commitment from wealthy nations to poorer nations was promised in 2009 and remains unfulfilled. Countries that are most at risk from the effects of climate change in the developing world are also pushing major carbon-emitting nations to increase their annual targets to keep global temperatures from rising past 1.5 degrees Celsius, or 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit, compared with levels before the Industrial Revolution. For many of the young protesters, the conference has produced mixed emotions: They expressed some concern that their voices were not being heard, but also some hope that their activism and presence at the event would help inspire change. “It’s a huge burden for young people to dedicate their lives to calling out politicians who are paid to represent us,” Robb said. The young activists say they want more than just reduced emissions: They would also like an acknowledgment of the systemic issues intertwined with climate change response, including inequality and poverty. They want solutions that work for everyone and that help dismantle racism, sexism and the neglect of developing nations. Alejandra Kopaitic, 33, a Chilean master’s student studying the environment and climate change at the University of Manchester, in England, came to Glasgow with her husband to participate in the march. She wants governments and corporations to make more immediate commitments to finding solutions. “We can do a lot from home, but it’s not enough: We need a whole system change,” she said. “If we don’t change business as usual and how we are producing things, taking resources from the ground and overconsuming, it is going to be difficult.” Philip Klein, 10, was out of his Glasgow school Friday to attend the march with his father and a schoolmate. “I want a good future,” Philip said. “Hopefully we can fix it.” Laura Kelly, 16, a student from Edinburgh, was blunt: “This is the moment; there is no better moment than now,” she said as she pointed to her banner, which read, “Action now or swim later.” “Time’s important,” she said, “and we are running out of it.” Rudy Sinclair, 16, was also missing school in Glasgow but said that his school encouraged taking the day off to join the march. “We feel that the more people that come here, the better the chance that the government will take notice and feel the pressure to do something,” he said. The presence of environmental activists at the conference itself has been muted because of pandemic restrictions, as well as difficulty in obtaining vaccines, visas and affordable accommodations, leaving some unable to attend. The Britain-based COP Coalition, an umbrella group of climate activists and organisations, has labelled the conference the “least accessible climate summit ever,” pointing to chaotic crowding and some delegates being told to dial into the meeting from hotel rooms. Monicah Kamandau stands for a portrait in Glasgow, Scotland on Wednesday, Nov. 3, 2021. Kamandau, a Kenyan climate activist who traveled to Glasgow, is hoping to see the $100 billion climate finance commitment become a reality. (Andrew Testa/The New York Times) The format of the event — which was flipped from previous years to begin with speeches from international leaders, including President Joe Biden — also left many activists barred from entering the conference centre this week because of heightened security. Monicah Kamandau stands for a portrait in Glasgow, Scotland on Wednesday, Nov. 3, 2021. Kamandau, a Kenyan climate activist who traveled to Glasgow, is hoping to see the $100 billion climate finance commitment become a reality. (Andrew Testa/The New York Times) Monicah Kamandau, 27, a Kenyan climate activist who travelled to Glasgow, has long called for the world’s richest countries that are the most responsible for climate change to pay their share of addressing the problem, and for greater inclusivity of youth voices in debates and solutions. She is hoping to see the $100 billion climate finance commitment become a reality, with clear directions for mitigation and adaptation, and mechanisms put in place for countries to be held accountable to their commitments. “I want to be very realistic and look at the fact that this is the 26th summit on climate discussions,” Kamandau said. “And my view is that over that time, there have been a lot of promises made, but they have not been implemented.” In particular, women and activists from developing nations — who are among those most affected by extreme weather driven by climate change — are being left out of the most crucial conversations around climate change, many activists say. In a survey of people in Brazil, India, South Africa and Vietnam, which all face imminent threats from climate change, ActionAid International, a charity group, found that nearly half of respondents think that developing countries are being excluded from representation at the climate talks. And three-quarters think that people from these regions will be most affected by the decisions made at the summit. Diaka Salena Koroma, a climate activist from Sierra Leone, was unable to attend because her visa was delayed, despite having been invited to participate. She began campaigning for climate justice in 2017 after a mudslide set off by torrential rain killed hundreds in Freetown, her country’s capital, and said women and girls on the front line of the climate crisis like her need to have more visibility. “We are born in a system where our voices — our existence — doesn’t even matter,” she said of young people from developing countries. Koroma, who spoke by video chat from her home, said she wanted to see climate funds be distributed directly to those already most affected by climate change and broader commitments from wealthy nations to help mitigate the issue. She also hopes the conference will one day be held in Africa to bring more voices from the continent to the table. “We can’t play politics with this kind of issue,” she said. “Climate change — it surpasses every other issue we have.”   ©2021 The New York Times Company

Dhaka, Apr 30 (bdnews24.com)— The government and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) signed an agreement Thursday in a first-ever field-level project that directly targets vulnerable people living in communities in coastal areas. The new project is styled "Community-based Adaptation to Climate Change through Coastal Afforestation in Bangladesh". The UND says in a press statement the project intends to enhance the resilience of both coastal communities, and protective ecosystems through community-led adaptation interventions. "Adaptation to climate change has become the new development challenge for Bangladesh. As such, this is the right project to take significant measures towards demonstrating adaptation strategies for vulnerable coastal communities," said UNDP country director Stefan Priesner. The project also aims to enhance the national, sub-national and local capacities of government authorities and sectoral planners to understand climate risk dynamics in coastal areas and implement appropriate risk reduction measures. The five coastal districts in which the project will be operated are Barguna, Patuakhali, Bhola, Noakhali and Chittagong. The project aims to be a show-case for other least developed countries also working on climate change adaptation projects. The results of the project will be presented before the upcoming Climate Conference in Copenhagen in December.

Asia-Pacific leaders agreed on Saturday to adopt a "long-term aspirational goal" to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, Australian Prime Minister John Howard said. Howard said 21 Asia-Pacific leaders meeting in Sydney agreed on the need for all nations, developing and developed, to contribute according to their own capacities and circumstances to reducing greenhouse gases. "We are serious about addressing in a sensible way, compatible with our different economic needs, the great challenge of climate change," Howard told reporters at the end of the first day of the weekend summit of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC). "This demonstrates the relevance of APEC. It demonstrates that APEC is very much alive and kicking." Green groups thought otherwise. "The Sydney Declaration is really just a Sydney distraction from real action on climate change," Greenpeace energy campaigner Catehrine Fitzpatrick said. "The failure of APEC to produce meaningful progress on climate change confirms that the place to do this is at the Kyoto negotiations in Bali in December." Proponents of the declaration say it sets the stage for the UN climate convention's annual summit in Bali, Indonesia in December, which is looking for a successor to the existing UN pact, known as the Kyoto Protocol, due to expire in 2012. The declaration was seen as a compromise between the rich and poor APEC economies, which together account for about 60 percent of the world's economy. REVERSING CLIMATE CHANGE But it calls for a global objective that would prevent "dangerous human interference with the climate system.. "The world needs to slow, stop and then reverse the growth of global greenhouse gas emissions," the declaration says Developing economies, led by China and Indonesia, opposed any wording that commits them to binding targets, believing it would hinder economic development. They argue developed nations should take more responsibility for climate change. The 21 leaders of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum met behind a tight security cordon at Sydney Opera House, as thousands of protesters marched nearby against US President George W. Bush, the Iraq war, global warming and a hodgepodge of other causes. They emerged at midday for the annual "funny shirts photo op", this time dressed in Australian stockmen's raincoats on a brisk, overcast spring day before returning to their Sydney Opera House redoubt to work on the climate change statement. Bush has had a whirlwind round of meetings with other leaders on his four-day visit, including Chinese President Hu Jintao, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Japanese premier Shinzo Abe, Australia's John Howard and leaders of Southeast Asian countries. On Saturday, he met Abe and Howard for a trilateral summit, that was expected to publicly urge China to be more transparent about its military build-up. A senior Japanese government official said the three leaders agreed to deal "constructively" with Beijing, which had cast a wary eye on the meeting, fearing it could turn into an alliance aimed at containing China. KALEIDOSCOPE OF PROTESTS Instead, India dominated the discussions, Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said. "I think there is a recognition now that India is a coming great power," Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer told reporters after the trilateral summit. Police had feared the protest march near Sydney Opera House would become a flashpoint for a full-scale riot, but in the end Saturday's anti-APEC march was a peaceful, kaleidoscope of protests. Nine were arrested after scuffling with police. Now Sydneysiders are questioning whether the $140 million operation featuring 5,000 police and troops, a mine sweeper in Sydney Harbour, the security fence cutting the city in half and the purchase of a water cannon, may have been a little excessive. "The biggest reason we're all here is to protest at just how much is being spent on security," Sydney community worker Bridget Hennessey said at Saturday's march. A week of protests have been non-violent and even farcical. About 50 people turned up in a city park on Friday to bare their buttocks in a "21-bum salute" to Bush. Earlier this week, a television comedy troupe, posing as the Canadian delegation, drove their motorcade through two checkpoints to within metres of Bush's hotel -- with one of them made up to look like Osama bin Laden sitting in the back, and the designation "Insecurity" written on their convention passes.

Sea ice in the Arctic Ocean is likely to shrink to a record small size sometime next week, and then keep on melting, a scientist at the US National Snow and Ice Data Center said on Monday. "A new daily record ... would be likely by the end of August," said Ted Scambos, lead scientist at the data center, which monitors ice in the Arctic and elsewhere. "Chances are it will cross the previous record while we're still in sea ice retreat." The amount of sea ice in the Arctic is important because this region is a potent global weather-maker, sometimes characterized as the world's air conditioner. This year, the loss of sea ice in the Arctic has suggested a possible opening of the Northwest Passage north of Canada and Alaska and the Northern Sea Route by Europe and Siberia. As parts of the Arctic melted, 2012 also set records for heat and drought in much of the Northern Hemisphere temperate zone, especially the continental United States. This summer could see the ice retreat to less than 1.5 million square miles (4 million square km), an unprecedented low, Scambos said. The previous record was set in 2007, when Arctic ice cover shrank to 1.66 million square miles (4.28 million square km), 23 percent below the earlier record set in 2005 and 39 percent below the long-term average from 1979 to 2000. However, 2007 was a jaw-dropping "perfect storm" of conditions that primed the area for thawing sea ice: warmer and sunnier than usual, with extremely warm ocean water and winds all working together to melt the Arctic. Last year, Arctic sea ice extended over the second-smallest area on record, but that was considered to be closer to a "new normal" rather than the extreme conditions of 2007, NSIDC said then. This year is similar to 2011, Scambos said by telephone from Colorado. The melt season started between 10 days to two weeks earlier than usual in some critical areas including northern Europe and Siberia. SIGNS OF CLIMATE CHANGE If the sea ice record is broken this month, that would be unusually early in the season; last year's low point came on September 9, 2011. Typically, the melting of Arctic sea ice slows down in August as the Northern Hemisphere moves toward fall, but this year, it has speeded up, Scambos said. "I doubt there's been another year that had as rapid an early August retreat," he said. Overall, the decline of Arctic sea ice has happened faster than projected by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change five years ago, according to NSIDC data ( here ). To Scambos, these are clear signs of climate change spurred by human activities, notably the emission of heat-trapping greenhouse gases including carbon dioxide. "Everything about this points in the same direction: we've made the Earth warmer," he said. This summer has also seen unusual melting of the ice sheet covering Greenland, with NASA images showing that for a few days in July, 97 percent of the northern island's surface was thawing. The same month also saw an iceberg twice the size of Manhattan break free from Greenland's Petermann Glacier. The change is apparent from an NSIDC graphic showing current Arctic ice cover compared with the 1979-2000 average, Scambos said. The graphic is online at nsidc.org/arcticseaicenews/ . "What you're seeing is more open ocean than you're seeing ice," he said. "It just simply doesn't look like what a polar scientist expects the arctic to look like. It's wide open and the (ice) cap is very small. It's a visceral thing. You look at it and that just doesn't look like the Arctic Ocean any more."

New genetic evidence supports the theory that Christopher Columbus brought syphilis to Europe from the New World, US researchers said on Monday, reviving a centuries-old debate about the origins of the disease. They said a genetic analysis of the syphilis family tree reveals that its closest relative was a South American cousin that causes yaws, an infection caused by a sub-species of the same bacteria. "Some people think it is a really ancient disease that our earliest human ancestors would have had. Other people think it came from the New World," said Kristin Harper, an evolutionary biologist at Emory University in Atlanta. "What we found is that syphilis or a progenitor came from the New World to the Old World and this happened pretty recently in human history," said Harper, whose study appears in journal Public Library of Science Neglected Tropical Diseases. She said the study lends credence to the "Columbian theory," which links the first recorded European syphilis epidemic in 1495 to the return of Columbus and his crew. "When you put together our genetic data with that epidemic in Naples in 1495, that is pretty strong support for the Columbian hypothesis," she said. Syphilis, a sexually transmitted disease caused by the bacterium Treponema pallidum, starts out as a sore, but progresses to a rash, fever, and eventually can cause blindness, paralysis and dementia. Most recent evidence of its origins comes from skeletal remains found in both the New World and the Old World. Chronic syphilis can leave telltale lesions on bone. "It has a worm-eaten appearance," Harper said in a telephone interview. SYPHILIS FAMILY TREE Harper used an approach that examines the evolutionary relationships between organisms known as phylogenetics. She looked at 26 strains of Treponema, the family of bacteria that give rise to syphilis and related diseases like bejel and yaws, typically a childhood disease that is transmitted by skin-to-skin contact. The study included two strains of yaws from remote areas of Guyana in South America that had never been sequenced before. "We sequenced 21 different regions trying to find DNA changes between the strains," Harper said. They concluded that while yaws is an ancient infection, venereal syphilis came about fairly recently. Harper suspects a nonvenereal subspecies of the tropical disease quickly evolved into venereal syphilis that could survive in the cooler, European climate. But it is not clear how this took place. "All we can say is the ancestor of syphilis came from the New World, but what exactly it was like, we don't know," she said. In a commentary published in the same journal, Connie Mulligan of the University of Florida and colleagues disagreed with Harper's analysis, suggesting her conclusions relied too heavily on genetic changes from the Guyana samples. Mulligan suggested that better clues would come from DNA extracted from ancient bones or preserved tissues. Harper concedes that more work needs to be done to explain the journey of syphilis to the New World. "This is a grainy photograph," she said.

Differences between rich and developing countries prevented G20 finance ministers from agreeing measures on Saturday to curb global warming, casting more doubt on UN efforts to agree a new climate treaty. Industrialised nations sought progress on climate change financing at a meeting of G20 finance ministers but met resistance from emerging nations including China and India, who fear the proposals could stifle their economic growth, two G20 sources said. Ministers said in their concluding statement that they would work towards a successful outcome at a United Nations meeting in Copenhagen in December which aims to draft a new climate change treaty to succeed the Kyoto agreement. British finance minister Alistair Darling said there had been "very substantial" discussion on the topic but no specific measures were agreed. "I am also a little disappointed by the lack of positive commitment today," European Union Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Joaquin Almunia said. Swedish Finance Minister Anders Borg, representing the European Union, agreed the outcome was "not satisfactory". "We would have been very happy to move further than we were able to at this meeting," he added. WRONG PLACE, WRONG TIME? U.S. President Barack Obama said in July that finance ministers should report on climate finance at a Sept. 24-25 G20 leaders' summit in the U.S. city of Pittsburgh, raising expectations of progress this weekend in London. Russia's Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin said there was disagreement on whether the G20 was the right forum to debate the matter. "Some participants thought we should make a strong statement on this issue, including possibly increasing the resources allocated to it. The other contingent thought this discussion, and these decisions should take place in Copenhagen," Kudrin told reporters. G20 sources said China and India had been among those objecting to detailed talks on climate change. In a statement on Friday, the finance ministers of Brazil, Russia, India and China said the UN's Framework Convention on Climate Change, which overseas the drafting of the new treaty, should be the main forum for negotiations on climate change. However, developing nations are suspicious rich countries are trying to avoid paying the full amount needed to cut C02 emissions and mitigate the impacts of climate change, and seeking to push some of the financial burden on to them. "Many developing countries are concerned that the global issue of climate change will constrain their ability to industrialise without creating additional costs," said Indonesian Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati on Friday. Developing nations are especially sceptical of proposals for private sector funding of the fight against climate change. They are keen for developed countries' governments to stump up the cash needed.

But this is also the world we live in: A pantheon of world leaders who have deep ties to the industries that are the biggest sources of planet-warming emissions, are hostile to protests or use climate science denial to score political points. That stark contrast comes at a time when governments face a challenge of a kind they have not seen since the beginning of the industrial era. In order to avert the worst effects of climate change, they must rebuild the engine of the global economy — to quickly get out of fossil fuels, the energy source that the system is based upon — because they failed to take steps decades ago when scientists warned they should. On Monday, at the United Nations Climate Action Summit, comes a glimpse of how far presidents and prime ministers are willing to go. UN Secretary-General António Guterres expects around 60 countries to announce what he called new “concrete” plans to reduce emissions and help the world’s most vulnerable cope with the fallout from global warming. The problem is, the protesters in the streets and some of the diplomats in the General Assembly hall are living in separate worlds. “Our political climate is not friendly to this discussion at this moment,” said Alice Hill, who specializes in climate policy at the Council on Foreign Relations. “Multilateralism is under attack. We have seen the rise of authoritarian governments. “We see these pressures as working against us,” she said. “We don’t have leadership in the United States to help guide the process.” President Donald Trump, in fact, has rolled back dozens of environmental regulations, most recently reversing rules on auto emissions, saying that they were an unnecessary burden on the U.S. economy. In Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro wants to open the Amazon to new commercial activity. In Russia, Vladimir Putin presides over a vast, powerful petro-state. China’s state-owned companies are pushing for coal projects at home and abroad, even as the country tries in other ways to tamp down emissions. Narendra Modi of India is set on expanding coal too, even as he champions solar power. The latest report by a UN-backed scientific panel, meanwhile, projected that if emissions continue to rise at their current pace, by 2040, the world could face inundated coastlines, intensifying droughts and food insecurity. Basically, a catastrophe. At a press briefing before the Monday summit, Guterres was bullish on what he described as a new willingness by governments and companies to address climate change seriously. He said he hoped “a very meaningful number of countries” would declare their aim to reduce carbon emissions significantly and aim to be carbon-neutral by 2050. “All of a sudden I started to feel there was momentum that was gaining, and this was largely due to the youth movement that started a fantastic, very dynamic impulse around the world,” Gutteres said Saturday as a UN Youth Climate Summit began. There will be some important no-shows at the Monday meeting, though. The United States, the largest economy in the world, has not even asked to take the podium. Nor has Brazil, home to most of the Amazon rainforest, often referred to as the lungs of the planet. Nor Japan, an economic powerhouse and the world’s seventh largest emitter of greenhouse gases. So, Guterres also tempered expectations. He told reporters at a briefing Friday that he did not expect announcements at the summit to yield emissions reductions that would measurably keep temperatures from rising to dangerous levels. At the current pace, global temperatures are set to rise beyond 3 degrees Celsius from preindustrial levels by the end of the century even if every country on Earth meets its goals under the 2015 Paris pact, which calls on nearly 200 nations to set voluntarily targets to reduce their emissions. Many big countries, including the United States, are not on track to meet their commitments. At UN climate talks next year, countries face their next deadline to set more ambitious targets to reduce emissions. “The summit needs to be seen in a continuum,” Guterres said. If anything, the Monday summit meeting, coming on the heels of huge youth protests worldwide, showed the vast distance between the urgency of climate action and the limits of diplomacy. Organizers estimated the turnout at the Friday protests to be around 4 million across thousands of cities and towns worldwide. Never has the modern world witnessed a climate protest so large and wide, spanning societies rich and poor, tied together by a sense of rage. “Climate emergency now,” read banners in several countries. Whether youth protests can goad many world leaders into changing their policies is a big question mark at best, said Michael Gerrard, a law professor at Columbia University. Some of them are closely linked to fossil fuel and extractive industries, he noted. Others have a record of crushing protests. And so the outcry, Gerrard said, may well fall on “intentionally closed ears.” Guterres said he was offering time to speak Monday only to those countries that are taking “positive steps” of varying kinds. Russia is expected to say it will ratify the 2015 Paris Agreement. India is expected to promise more ambitious renewable energy targets. All eyes will be on China — currently the world’s largest emitter of greenhouse gases, but on track to meet its Paris agreement pledges — to see if it will announce that its emissions will begin falling sooner than it had originally predicted. Several dozen countries are expected to promise to reduce emissions to the point at which they will be carbon-neutral by 2050; Britain is the largest economy to have set that target. Some of the most ambitious announcements could come not from nations at all, but from banks, fund managers and other businesses. Still, the protesters and the diplomats have radically different expectations, and even a different sense of time. On Saturday, at the youth summit, Greta Thunberg, the 16-year-old climate activist whose solo student strike has helped ignite a global youth movement, signaled that pressure would continue. Sitting next to Gutteres, Thunberg took the microphone and said the millions of young people who protested around the world Friday had made an impact. “We showed them we are united and that we young people are unstoppable,” she said. From Guterres came a hat tip. “I encourage you to go on. I encourage you to keep your initiative, keep your mobilization and more and more to hold my generation accountable.” Those protests have buoyed the efforts of UN officials to push for more ambitious climate action but haven’t necessarily made the job easy. “The time window is closing and it’s dramatically short for what we have to do,” said Achim Steiner, head of the UN Development Program. “The protests are helpful because they show national leaders in their societies, in their countries, that the politics of climate change is changing and it is adding momentum and pressure to act.” The UN is itself under pressure to do more to curb its own carbon footprint. A letter signed by more than 1,700 staff members urged Guterres to adopt greener travel policies, like encouraging the use of trains whenever possible. The letter also urged the UN Pension Fund to divest from fossil fuels. Whatever comes out of the Monday summit meeting may well seem lackluster to those out on the streets — the generation that will feel the intensifying impacts of climate change. That’s the challenge facing Guterres, who has made climate action one of the top priorities for the world body at a time when several powerful world leaders have dismissed the science. “It is a pretty exquisite balancing act to ally with Greta Thunberg and Xi Jinping to box in Donald Trump,” said Richard Gowan, who follows the UN for the International Crisis Group. “Let’s see if he can do it.”

EU ministers will seek to narrow differences on Monday over energy policy ahead of a summit due to adopt an ambitious plan to fight climate change. But foreign ministers from the 27 EU states meeting in Brussels are unlikely to resolve the most contentious issue of whether to set binding targets for renewable sources of energy before their leaders meet on Thursday, diplomats said. "Everybody agrees we need to be ambitious," an EU diplomat said of the energy plan. "The only real question is whether we should go any further -- should we be even more ambitious?" The German EU presidency wants a binding target for renewable energy enshrined in the action plan -- not just a statement of aim to reach 20 percent for such sources, which include solar, wind and hydro power, by 2020. While the European Union has declared fighting climate change a top priority, France and about 10 other countries, including several Eastern European states, are wary of binding targets that would impinge on their national energy strategies. "They are unlikely to resolve the issue on Monday," the diplomat said. "That will probably be left for the leaders." British officials have signalled that Prime Minister Tony Blair has dropped resistance to a binding target. Some EU diplomats said they expect French President Jacques Chirac to yield in exchange for a recognition that France's nuclear power programme helps cut carbon dioxide emissions. A possible compromise, diplomats said, might be to make the 20 percent target binding on the EU as a whole but not on individual states, with burden-sharing to be negotiated later. DARFUR, MIDDLE EAST, IRAN At the Brussels meeting, the ministers will also discuss crises in Darfur, the Middle East and Iran's nuclear programme. They are expected to urge the United Nations to consider tightening sanctions on Sudan over Darfur and pledge funds to help create a joint African Union-UN peace force. On the Middle East, they are expected to reiterate a willingness to work with a new Palestinian national unity government provided it adopts an acceptable platform. France has said it would be "disposed to cooperate" with the government but other EU states have said the coalition must clearly recognise Israel, renounce violence and accept interim peace deals before an embargo on direct aid can be lifted. The EU's executive Commission has played down the prospect of a swift resumption of direct aid, saying the new government would have to be judged by its actions. At the same time, in bilateral talks with Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni on Monday evening, the EU side is expected to renew a call for the release of Palestinian tax revenues withheld by Israel since the Hamas militant group came to power. On Monday, the ministers will also hear from EU states that took part in talks on Saturday on a second UN sanctions resolution on Iran for failing to give up uranium enrichment, a programme the West believes is aimed at an atomic bomb and Tehran says is entirely peaceful. The United States has been pushing for European governments to end export credits to firms doing business in Iran, but EU diplomats say some EU states are reluctant to go beyond steps directly linked to the nuclear programme. The ministers are expected to stress the need for a firm response to Iran while saying the door remains open for talks.

HOI AN, Vietnam, Sep 30, (bdnews24.com/Reuters) - Vietnam's central provinces battled the biggest floods in decades on Wednesday caused by a powerful typhoon that swept into the country after wreaking havoc in the Philippines. Government reports said torrential rains from Typhoon Ketsana, which swept into Vietnam late on Tuesday, killed 40 people and left 10 missing from floods and landslides in nine coastal and central highland provinces. Ketsana hit the Philippines at the weekend, killing 246 people, leaving another 42 missing, and causing damages totaling more than $100 million, officials said. Weather reports said that by late on Wednesday rivers in Vietnam's Quang Nam province could reach a level last seen in 1964. The typhoon spared most of Daklak, Vietnam's top coffee-growing province, and officials were still assessing coffee and rubber trees in Gia Lai, the third-largest coffee grower, state-run Vietnam Television said. Floodwaters had submerging some old houses in Quang Nam's Hoi An city, a UNESCO-recognized World Heritage site, where people had to move around by boat. "We have had storms or flooding in the past, but this time we have both of them," Le Xuan Toan, a 45-year-old Hoi An resident, told Reuters while sitting on the roof of his submerged house. Foreign tourists who took shelter in state buildings in Hoi An when the typhoon made landfall returned to hotels on Wednesday and some helped clean up the streets. SHIPS TOSSED ASHORE Floods from the typhoon damaged or destroyed 294,000 homes in central Vietnam. Around 357,000 people in 10 provinces were evacuated. Sea waves threw several ships onshore in the port city of Danang, a Reuters witness said. The region hit by Ketsana lies far north of Vietnam's Mekong Delta rice basket. The rain dumped on the Central Highlands coffee belt could delay the start of the next coffee harvest by up to 10 days but exports would not be affected, traders said. Ketsana had weakened to a tropical storm after moving into Laos and Cambodia on Tuesday night, weather forecasters said. Vietnam's Deputy Prime Minister Hoang Trung Hai urged the authorities to quickly resume power supplies to the typhoon-hit region, including Quang Ngai province, where Vietnam's first oil refinery, Dung Quat, was due to reopen on Wednesday after an outage halted the plant's test runs last month. The 140,000 barrel per day plant will resume operations later on Wednesday as scheduled after repairs, a Petrovietnam official said, adding the typhoon had not damaged the facility. The storm has become a focus of marathon climate talks in Bangkok this week, with developing nations and green groups saying it is an example of the type of climate disaster poor nations could face in a warmer world. "Ketsana is clearly a manifestation of the consequences of global inaction in addressing the immediate impacts of creeping climate change," chief Philippine climate negotiator Heherson Alvarez told reporters. He said rich nations must act urgently "to moderate these storms and spare the whole world from the impoverishing and devastating impacts of climate change." Residents in Manila have been scathing in their criticism of the government's disaster response in the crowded city of 15 million where sewers are notoriously blocked by rubbish. Ketsana dumped more than a month's worth of average rainfall on Manila and surrounding areas, forcing 375,000 out of their homes and destroying more than 180,000 tonnes of paddy rice. Philippine lawmakers were set to pass a supplementary budget for 2009 of about 10 billion pesos ($211 million) for relief, recovery and rehabilitation efforts, Defense secretary Gilberto Teodoro said. A new storm forming in the Pacific Ocean was likely to enter Philippine waters on Thursday and make landfall later on the northern island of Luzon, forecasters said.

The new deal will not, on its own, solve global warming, despite the urgent demands of many of the thousands of politicians, environmentalists and protesters who gathered at the Glasgow climate summit. Its success or failure will hinge on whether world leaders follow through with new policies to cut greenhouse gas emissions. And the deal leaves vulnerable countries far short of the funds they need to cope with increasing weather disasters. The talks underscored the complexity of trying to persuade scores of countries, each with their economic interests and domestic politics, to act in unison for the greater good. But the agreement established a clear consensus that all nations must do much more, immediately, to prevent a harrowing rise in global temperatures. And it set up transparency rules to hold countries accountable for the progress they make or fail to make. US climate envoy John Kerry entered the plenary hall Saturday evening with his arm around the shoulder of Xie Zhenhua, China’s chief climate negotiator. Last-minute deal-making could be seen on the floor as Xie and Kerry huddled, mask to mask, with Alok Sharma, the British politician who led the U.N. summit. Architects of the agreement hoped it would send a powerful signal to capitals and corporate boardrooms around the globe that more ambitious action on climate change is inevitable, which could in turn empower civil society groups and lawmakers working to shift countries away from burning oil, gas and coal for energy in favour of cleaner sources such as wind, solar and nuclear power. “The train is moving, and all countries need to get on board,” said Ani Dasgupta, president of the World Resources Institute. “If the world is going to beat back the climate crisis, no one can sit on the sidelines.” Yet many others said the deal failed to meet the moment, in a year of deadly heat in Canada, devastating floods in Germany and New York, and raging wildfires in Siberia. At the start of the two-week summit, leaders, including President Joe Biden and Prime Minister Boris Johnson of Britain, framed the meeting as the world’s last, best chance to save the planet. The final deal is “not in line with the urgency and scale required,” said Shauna Aminath, environment minister of the Maldives, an archipelago of low-lying islands in the Indian Ocean that has been inhabited for thousands of years but could be inundated within three generations because of rising seas. “What looks balanced and pragmatic to other parties will not help the Maldives adapt in time. It will be too late for the Maldives,” she said. In the final hours of talks Saturday night, negotiators clashed over wording that would have called on countries to “phase out” coal power and government subsidies for oil and gas. Fossil fuels have never been explicitly mentioned in a global climate agreement before, even though they are the dominant cause of global warming. In the end, at the urging of India, which argued that fossil fuels were still needed for its development, “phase out” was changed to “phase down.” Switzerland's representative, Simonetta Sommaruga, assailed the change. "We do not need to phase down but to phase out," she said. Going into the summit, world leaders said their ultimate goal was to prevent Earth from heating more than 1.5 degrees Celsius, or 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit, compared to preindustrial levels. Past that threshold, scientists have warned, the risk of deadly heatwaves, destructive storms, water scarcity and ecosystem collapse grows immensely. The world has already warmed 1.1 degrees Celsius. But even as countries vowed to step up their climate efforts both before and during the Glasgow summit, they are still falling far short. The detailed plans that governments have made to curb fossil fuel emissions and deforestation between now and 2030 would put the world on pace to warm by roughly 2.4 degrees Celsius this century, according to analysts at Climate Action Tracker, a research group. “Countries still don’t seem to understand that we’re in an emergency situation, and we need to cut emissions much faster this decade, or else any hope of staying at 1.5 degrees will be lost,” said Niklas Höhne, a German climatologist and founding partner of NewClimate Institute, which created the Climate Action Tracker. A major focus of this year’s talks was how to push countries to do more. Under the last big climate deal, the Paris Agreement in 2015, governments weren’t formally scheduled to come back with new climate pledges until 2025, which many experts said was far too late for a major course correction. The new agreement in Glasgow asks countries to come back by the end of next year with stronger pledges to cut emissions by 2030. Although the agreement states clearly that, on average, all nations will need to slash their carbon dioxide emissions nearly in half this decade to hold warming below 1.5 degrees Celsius, it leaves unresolved the question of exactly how the burden of those cuts will be shared among nations. It remains to be seen if countries will follow through; there are no sanctions or penalties if they fail to do so. Before the Glasgow talks, some governments such as the United States and European Union did step up their climate pledges under the Paris Agreement. Yet others — like Australia, China, Brazil and Russia — barely improved on their short-term plans. Money, meanwhile, remained a huge sticking point in the talks. A number of swiftly industrializing countries, such as India and Indonesia, have said they would be willing to accelerate a shift away from coal power if they received financial help from richer countries. But so far, that help has been slow to arrive. A decade ago, the world’s wealthiest economies pledged to mobilize $100 billion per year in climate aid for poorer countries by 2020. But they are still falling short by tens of billions of dollars per year. At the same time, only a small fraction of the aid to date has gone toward measures to help poorer countries cope with the hazards of a hotter planet, such as sea walls or early-warning systems for floods and droughts. According to one recent study, some African nations are spending up to 9% of their gross domestic product on adaptation, while still only addressing about one-fifth of their needs. The new agreement tries to fill in some of those gaps. It calls out rich countries for failing to meet the $100 billion goal and urges them to “at least double” funding for adaptation by 2025. It also sets up a process for figuring out a collective goal for long-term financing, although that process could take years, and developing countries say they may ultimately need trillions of dollars this decade. Tina Stege, climate ambassador for the Marshall Islands, called the promises for more money “a step toward helping countries like mine who must transform our very physical environment in the coming years to survive the onslaught of climate change.” Separately, vulnerable countries such as Bangladesh had also called for a new stream of funding to help countries recover from climate disasters they can't adapt to, paid for by industrialized nations such as the United States and the European Union that are historically responsible for most of the extra greenhouse gases now heating the atmosphere. In diplomatic speak, this is known as “loss and damage.” But wealthy nations blocked a proposal to set up a new fund for this purpose, instead agreeing only to initiate a “dialogue” on the issue in future talks. “The needs of the world’s vulnerable people have been sacrificed on the altar of the rich world’s selfishness,” said Mohamed Adow, an activist with Power Shift Africa. But, he added, “loss and damage is now up the political agenda in a way it was never before, and the only way out is for it to be eventually delivered.” Separately, negotiators in Glasgow announced a major deal on how to regulate the fast-growing global market in carbon offsets, in which one company or country compensates for its own emissions by paying someone else to reduce theirs. One of the thorniest technical issues is how to properly account for these global trades so that any reductions in emissions aren’t overestimated or double-counted. The summit provided signs of growing momentum for climate action, albeit with caveats. On the sidelines at the talks, clusters of countries announced initiatives they were undertaking on their own. More than 100 countries agreed to cut emissions of methane, a potent planet-warming gas, by 30% this decade. Another 130 countries vowed to halt deforestation by 2030 and commit billions of dollars toward the effort. Dozens of other countries vowed to phase out their coal plants and sales of gasoline-powered vehicles over the next few decades. Activists noted that those promises were voluntary and often didn’t include major emitters such as China or Russia. But others argued they could pressure heads of state and titans of industry to do more. “If you tried to get every single country to agree to get rid of internal combustion engines through the formal U.N. process, you’d get nowhere,” said Nigel Topping, who was chosen by the United Nations as its “high-level climate action champion.” “But if you get a bunch of countries and major automakers to stand up and say, ‘we’re doing this,’ it starts forcing the market, and pretty soon more and more companies start signing on.” On top of that, most major economies have now pledged to reach “net zero” emissions by a certain date, essentially a promise to stop adding greenhouse gases to the atmosphere. The United States and European Union said they would do so by 2050, China by 2060. At Glasgow, India joined the chorus, saying it would reach net zero by 2070. When Climate Action Tracker looked at these additional promises, it estimated that the world could conceivably limit global warming to 1.8 degrees Celsius by 2100 although, so far, most countries haven’t put policies in place to get there. Calculations like that persuaded many politicians and environmentalists that the dream of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees might yet be in reach, as long as governments can be pressured to follow through on what they’ve promised. “It’s meek, it’s weak and the 1.5 Celsius goal is only just alive, but a signal has been sent that the era of coal is ending,” Jennifer Morgan, executive director of Greenpeace International, said of the climate deal. “And that matters.” © 2021 The New York Times Company

Asia was hardest-hit by natural disasters last year that worldwide killed more than 16,500 people and caused $62.5 billion in damage, according to a UN-backed research group. There was also a marked increase in the number of floods in 2007, a trend the Centre for Research on Epidemiology of Disasters said reflected the threat posed by global warming. Eight of the worst 10 disasters last year struck Asia. Cyclone Sidr in Bangladesh in November claimed the highest toll of 4,234 lives, according to the Belgium-based centre. "There were no real mega-disasters in 2007, which is the good news, but economic losses were higher than the year before," Debarati Guha-Sapir, centre director, told a news conference in Geneva Friday. "We see more extreme events overall, not geological ones like earthquakes and volcano eruptions, but very many more windstorms and floods," she said. Scientists warn that climate change, blamed mainly on human emissions of so-called greenhouse gases from burning fossil fuels, will bring extreme weather including more heatwaves, droughts, floods and rising seas in coming years. "Current trends are consistent with the prediction of the Inter-Governmental Panel on Climate Change, in that Asia and also West Africa are already suffering from more severe and frequent floods," Guha-Sapir said in a statement. She said there was already a "significant increase" in floods in 2007, creating unsanitary conditions in which diseases such as malaria, dengue fever and cholera flourish. The 206 recorded floods last year accounted for more than half of the world's 399 natural disasters. This compared with an annual average of 172 floods between 2000-2006. Nearly 200 million people worldwide were affected by disasters last year, half of them in China, which suffered heavy floods last June-July, it said. Losses from natural disasters amounted to $62.5 billion in 2007, up from $34 billion in 2006, Guha-Sapir said, partly due to rich countries suffering damage to costly insured structures. An earthquake in Japan last July cost $12.5 billion and Europe's winter storm Kyrill caused $10 billion in damage, it said. Summer floods in Britain caused $8 billion in damage, while huge wildfires in California cost $2.5 billion. "These figures are a reminder of what could have been saved if we had invested more in disaster risk reduction measures," said Salvano Briceno, director of the Geneva-based ISDR. An ISDR spokeswoman said that for every dollar spent on disaster prevention, an estimated $4-7 could be saved in reconstruction costs. In 2005, global economic losses from natural disasters soared to a record $225 billion, half of it stemming from damage by Hurricane Katrina in the United States.

LOS ANGELES Wed Jun 10, (bdnews24.com/Reuters) - A US-based language monitoring group crowned Web 2.0 as the one millionth word or phrase in the English language on Wednesday, although other linguists slammed it as nonsense and a stunt. The Global Language Monitor, which uses a math formula to track the frequency of words and phrases in print and electronic media, said Web 2.0 appeared over 25,000 times in searches and was widely accepted, making it the legitimate, one millionth word. It said Web 2.0 started out as a technical term meaning the next generation of World Wide Web products and services but had crossed into far wider circulation in the last six months. Other linguists, however, denounced the list as pure publicity and unscientific, saying it was impossible to count English words in use or to agree on how many times a word must be used before it is officially accepted. There are no set rules for such a count as there is no certified arbiter of what constitutes a legitimate English word and classifying the language is complicated by the number of compound words, verbs and obsolete terms. "I think it's pure fraud ... It's not bad science. It's nonsense," Geoffrey Nunberg, a linguistics professor at the University of California at Berkeley, told reporters. Paul JJ Payack, president of the Global Language Monitor, brushed off the criticism, saying his method was technically sound. "If you want to count the stars in the sky, you have to define what a star is first and then count. Our criteria is quite plain and if you follow those criteria you can count words. Most academics say what we are doing is very valuable," said Payack. He has calculated that about 14.7 new English words or phrases are generated daily and said the five words leading up to the millionth highlighted how English was changing along with current social trends. This list included "Jai Ho!" an Indian exclamation signifying victory or accomplishment, and "slumdog," a derisive term for children living in the slums of India that became popular with the Oscar-winning movie "Slumdog Millionaire." The list also included "cloud computing," meaning services delivered via the cloud or Internet, "carbon neutral," a widely used term in the climate change debate, and "N00b," a derogatory term from the gaming community for a newcomer. "Some 400 years after the death of the Bard, the words and phrases were coined far from Stratford-Upon-Avon, emerging instead from Silicon Valley, India, China, and Poland, as well as Australia, Canada, the US and the UK," said Texas-based Payack.

During a meeting in Peru, Obama again urged all sides in the dispute over the South China Sea reduce tensions and resolve their disputes peacefully. He encouraged China to advance economic reforms, including a transition to a market-determined currency exchange rate. The meeting is expected to be the last between the two leaders before President-elect Donald Trump enters the White House. Trump has been sharply critical of China. "We meet at a hinge moment in the China-US relationship," Xi said at the start of the meeting, through an interpreter. "I hope the two sides will work together to focus on cooperation, manage our differences and make sure there is a smooth transition in the relationship and that it will continue to grow going forward," he said. Trump, a Republican, has accused China of being a currency manipulator and promised to slap big tariffs on imported Chinese goods. He has called climate change a "hoax" designed to help Beijing. "The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make US manufacturing non-competitive," Trump wrote in a tweet in 2012. Obama and Xi pushed for an international agreement forged in Paris to combat global warming. Obama called that an example of the benefits of the two countries working together. "Now we face the work of making sure our economies transition to become more sustainable," he said. Trump's election has raised questions about whether the United States would try to pull out of the accord, a key legacy accomplishment for Obama, a Democrat. China also helped negotiate the Iran nuclear agreement, another big piece of Obama's foreign policy that Trump has threatened to dismantle. Neither Xi nor Obama mentioned Trump in their remarks in front of reporters. "Mr. President, I would like to commend you for the active efforts you've made to grow this relationship," Xi said to Obama. Obama noted that the two leaders would discuss areas of disagreement, including "the creation of a more level playing field for our businesses to compete, innovation policies, excess capacity and human rights," he said. "I continue to believe that a constructive US-China relationship benefits our two peoples and benefits the entire globe," he said. The two leaders addressed the threat of North Korea’s efforts to advance its nuclear weapons, reaffirming their commitment to achieving the denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula, the White House said. Obama also raised the issue of excess capacity in industrial sectors including steel, the White House said, and urged the rapid launch of the Global Forum on Steel Excess Capacity, in line with the G-20 Leaders’ agreement in Hangzhou, China.

Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi held a rare meeting with a government minister on Monday, raising the prospect of a thaw in relations between the Nobel Peace laureate and the country's new military-backed leadership. Suu Kyi, who was only informed about the meeting on Sunday, talked for just over an hour with Labour Minister Aung Kyi at a state guesthouse in what was the first known contact between the 66-year-old and a member of the new, nominally civilian government. In a joint statement, both parties said they were positive and satisfied with the meeting, in which they had discussed issues that would be of benefit to Myanmar's people. Suu Kyi, the figurehead of the fight against military dictatorship in Myanmar, already knew Aung Kyi, having met him on nine occasions since 2007 while she was in detention and he was a minister liaising between her and the junta. Aung Kyi dismissed suggestions those meetings were a waste of time and said he hoped for further dialogue with Suu Kyi. "There were some benefits from previous meetings and we expect better results from these talks," Aung Kyi told reporters. With Suu Kyi beside him, Aung Kyi read a joint statement to the media. "Discussions were focussed on possibilities for cooperating in the interests of the people," he said. "This included the rule of law and overcoming disunity, and matters that will benefit the public." A new government took office in April, ending 49 years of direct military rule over the former British colony. Since her release from seven years of house arrest last November, Suu Kyi has made repeated calls for dialogue with the new rulers. SIGNS OF PROGRESS Nyan Win, a spokesman for the National League for Democracy (NLD), Suu Kyi's active but officially disbanded party, said the political climate had changed and the government's invitation to Suu Kyi indicated some progress. Suu Kyi has been careful not to antagonise the government since her release and did not criticise a November 7 election regarded at home and abroad as a sham that ensured the same regime stayed in power behind a veneer of democracy. The government and military appear to have backed off from their tough stance towards Suu Kyi, occasionally criticising her in state-run media but allowing her freedom to travel and meet with diplomats, journalists and supporters. Analysts say the government is aware that any move against Suu Kyi would anger the international community and rule out the possibility of Western sanctions being lifted in the near future. Dialogue with Suu Kyi could be a move by Myanmar's reclusive leaders, many of them former military officers, to show foreign governments they are ready to engage. Christopher Roberts, a Southeast Asia specialist at Australian National University, said the meeting was probably more than a publicity stunt. "It comes as part of a collective pattern of behaviour by the government that has potential for incremental improvements," he said. "Myanmar is trying to build a system and image of a real government and I think it wants to normalise things. Not only have its leaders met US, Australian and UN representatives, they've allowed them to meet Suu Kyi, too. "It will do these things, as long as they don't undermine security or stability," Roberts added.

Britain at the end of the month hosts the COP26 UN climate talks in Glasgow, Scotland, which aim to strengthen global action on climate change. "With the major climate summit COP26 just around the corner, our strategy sets the example for other countries to build back greener too as we lead the charge towards global net zero," Johnson said. Johnson, who once expressed scepticism about climate change, presented his 368-page net zero strategy as a document that would put the UK at the vanguard of green economies. "The UK leads the world in the race to net zero," he said in the foreword to the 'Net Zero Strategy: Build Back Greener'. "The likes of China and Russia are following our lead with their own net zero targets, as prices tumble and green tech becomes the global norm," he said. In 2019, Britain became the first member of the Group of Seven major industrialised economies to set a net zero emissions target for 2050, which will require drastic changes in the way Britons travel, heat their homes and consume electricity. The strategy is a series of long-term promises, some with caveats, to shift the world's fifth largest economy towards green technologies, including moving to clean electricity and low-carbon heating in British homes. It aims to secure 440,000 jobs and unlock 90 billion pounds ($124 billion) of private investment by 2030. It also aims to help Britain gain a competitive edge in low-carbon technologies such as heat pumps, electric vehicles, carbon capture and storage and hydrogen. The government targets being powered entirely by clean electricity, "subject to security of supply", by 2035. It aims to have 40 gigawatts (GW) of offshore wind power by 2030, as well as 1 GW of floating offshore wind. As of the end of last year, renewables accounted for around 40% of total electricity generated in Britain, with wind energy supplying around 24% of that. LOW-CARBON SHIFT "The strategy should generate a new and attractive form of growth, but the investments have to be fostered, and some households, particularly low-income ones, will need some help," said Nicholas Stern, climate economist and chair of the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment. "Most of the investment will be by the private sector and it is very important that the right kind of incentives and risk management are generated through private-public partnership." Earlier on Tuesday, Johnson announced nearly 10 billion pounds of private investment in green projects at an investment summit in London. The government plans to deliver 5 GW of hydrogen production capacity by 2030, while cutting its emissions from oil and gas by half. It wants to deliver four carbon capture storage and usage (CCUS) clusters, capturing 20-30 million tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) across the economy per year by 2030. The government also aims to deploy at least 5 million tonnes of CO2 a year of engineered greenhouse gas removals by 2030. The strategy said current gas price spikes underline the need to move away from fossil fuels as quickly as possible, but the transition has to be managed in a way which protects jobs, investment and guarantees security of supply. In the wholesale market, the price of gas, the fuel the UK relies on for the majority of its heating, has risen by over 250 percent this year, forcing some energy suppliers out of business and boosting consumer energy bills. Simone Rossi, chief executive of EDF in the UK, which operates the country's nuclear plant fleet, said: "Rising gas prices are putting pressure on people's energy bills now, so we need to make urgent progress with building proven, low carbon energy generation that keeps costs steady and supplies secure." Many of the UK's nuclear plants are ageing. Some are being decommissioned earlier than scheduled and EDF's new Hinkley Point C plant will not be online until 2026. EDF also plans to build a plant at Sizewell in Suffolk subject to the right investment framework. The Johnson government said it would secure a final investment decision on a large-scale nuclear plant by the end of this parliament. It will also launch a new 120 million pound "future nuclear enabling fund" for future nuclear technologies, including small modular reactors, with a number of potential sites such as Wylfa in north Wales.

Australia's reliance on coal-fired power makes it one of the world's largest carbon emitters per capita, but its conservative government has steadfastly backed Australia's new deputy PM casts shadow over 2050 net-zero emissions ambition fossil fuel industries, saying tougher action on emissions would cost jobs. "We fully understand the role that coal and other fossil fuels have played in Australia's economy, even if mining accounts for a small fraction - around 2 percent - of overall jobs," Hart said in a speech at the Australian National University in Canberra. "But it's essential to have a broader, more honest and rational conversation about what is in Australia's interests." The UN has called for phasing out coal by 2030 in Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development countries, which include Australia. In July, energy and environment ministers from the Group of 20 big economies failed to deliver a deal to phase out coal by 2025. But some experts said there were chances of progress at UN climate talks in Glasgow in November. Prime Minister Scott Morrison has said Australia is on a path to net-zero carbon emissions but has stopped short of committing to a timeline. He has said that Australia would update its 2030 emissions projections going into the Glasgow talks. Most other developed countries have signed up to a target of net-zero emissions by 2050. Hart said that the Australian government should "seize the moment" and switch to renewables. "If the world does not rapidly phase out coal, climate change will wreak havoc right across the Australian economy: from agriculture to tourism, and right across the services sector," he said.

His full tweet: "The newly created Disinformation Board should review this tweet, or maybe they need to form a new Non Sequitur Board instead. Raising corp taxes is fine to discuss. Taming inflation is critical to discuss. Mushing them together is just misdirection." Still bristling, Bezos, who owns The Washington Post, fired again Sunday, the DealBook newsletter reports. He lauded Joe Manchin, the centrist West Virginia senator who has often declined to vote with other Democrats on economic issues, halting additional stimulus plans. “Manchin saved them from themselves,” Bezos wrote, plunging the company into politics at a fraught time internally, amid an employee unionization push. Externally, many executives recently have been trying to stay out of difficult debates, given the backlash some companies have faced. Wrangling with the government over taxes on Twitter means calling public attention to a touchy topic for Amazon. The company reported nearly $36 billion in US pretax income in 2021 yet said it owed only about $2 billion in federal taxes. That’s a 6 percent tax rate — less than a third of the rates both corporations and workers must pay. When Biden unveiled plans to raise rates and close tax loopholes last year, he singled out Amazon, saying, “I don’t want to punish them, but that’s just wrong.” Amazon did not respond to DealBook’s request for comment. Disney last month lost its special tax status in Florida after opposing a law limiting gender identity discussions in schools. Now, Republican lawmakers at the state and federal levels are drafting similarly retributive legislation for politically minded businesses. But for executives, it’s a balance. Many workers, shareholders and customers are demanding that corporations speak up, and pressure could increase now that abortion rights have become a major midterm election issue. So Amazon’s current chief executive, Andy Jassy, is probably not looking for this fight right now. Bezos, for his part, quietly butters up the government, just like Elon Musk. While both have been publicly critical of the Biden administration, Bezos’ Blue Origin and Musk’s SpaceX spend significant resources lobbying officials to pick up their space exploration tabs and to win NASA contracts. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt, has accused the two billionaires of using NASA like an ATM. He tweeted at Bezos on Saturday about Amazon’s labour issues and soaring profits: "No, Mr. Bezos. Disinformation is Amazon spreading anti-union propaganda & forcing workers to attend illegal captive audience meetings. Disinformation is Amazon blaming a 17 percent price increase on 'inflation' while making a record $35 billion in profits & avoiding $5 billion in taxes." © 2022 The New York Times Company

Climate change cut global wheat and corn output by more than 3 percent over the past three decades compared to growth projections without a rise in temperatures, a study found on Friday. The impacts translated into up to 20 percent higher average commodity prices, before accounting for other factors, according to the paper published in the journal Science. Crop yields rose over the period for example as a result of improvements in practices and plant breeding, and the isolated, negative impact of climate change was equivalent to about one tenth of those advances. But that varied widely between countries with Russia, Turkey and Mexico more affected for wheat, for example. The isolated impact of climate change on wheat and corn was a warning of the future food supply and price impact from an expected acceleration in warming, the paper said. "Climate changes are already exerting a considerable drag on yield growth," said the study titled "Climate Trends and Global Crop Production Since 1980". The authors used crop yield models with and without changes in temperature and rainfall to show global falls in wheat output of 5.5 percent and 3.8 percent for corn as a result of climate change from 1980-2008. That was equivalent to the entire annual corn crop of Mexico, or the wheat crop of France, the European Union's biggest producer, it said. Nationally, among the worst affected was Russia, with a nearly 15 percent cull in wheat, while the United States was unaffected. For soybeans and rice, climate change winners and losers balanced each other out. For example, rice gained in cooler, higher latitude countries. CO2 The paper, written by scientists from U.S. institutions including Stanford University and Columbia University, noted that adaptation responses, such as advances in crop breeding, could soften the blow of future warming. "Without successful adaptation, and given the persistent rise in demand for maize and wheat, the sizable yield setback from climate change is likely incurring large economic and health costs," it said. The study did not account for the impact of higher atmospheric levels of carbon dioxide (CO2), the main manmade greenhouse gas which is also a raw ingredient of, and so spurs, crop growth -- called CO2 fertilisation. Including that effect would likely see a net benefit from climate change on soybeans and rice since 1980, it said. Conversely, the paper did not account for extreme heatwaves or rainfall, which means the findings could under-estimate the global warming impact. The output losses since 1980 translated into 18.9 percent or 6.4 percent higher average commodity prices, excluding and including the effect of CO2 fertilisation respectively. The models were based on actual data which showed rising temperatures across nearly all the world's main growing regions with the exception of the United States, which saw a slight cooling over the period. Rainfall trends were more muted. Concerns have grown in the past few weeks for the impact of droughts on wheat yields in parts of the United States and Europe.

NEW DELHI, Dec 4,(bdnews24.com/Reuters) - India set a goal on Thursday for slowing the growth of its greenhouse gas emissions, the last major economy to offer a climate target four days before the start of UN talks on combating global warming. The government said it was willing to rein in its "carbon intensity" -- the amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) emitted per unit of economic output -- by between 20 and 25 percent by 2020, from 2005 levels. "India can't be like a frog in the well, India has to show leadership to its own people -- we need to show action," Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh told parliament, laying out India's position ahead of the Dec. 7-18 summit in Denmark. Such a goal will let India's emissions keep rising. Ramesh said India, the fourth biggest greenhouse gas emitter, would not set a peak year for its emissions, or accept absolute cuts. The unilateral announcement contrasted with a harder line on Wednesday when diplomats said India, China, Brazil and South Africa opposed the setting of goals advocated by the Danish hosts, including a halving of world emissions by 2050. The big emerging economies have often insisted that rich nations have caused global warming by spewing out greenhouse gases since the Industrial Revolution, and want to see deep cuts by these rich nations before joining the effort. "This means that all of the world's biggest emitters have reacted to the deadline in Copenhagen. It is very good news that India has brought numbers to the table," said Connie Hedegaard, Denmark's Environment Minister who will preside at the talks. India's goal will let emissions rise, albeit at a slower rate than gross domestic product growth (GDP). "Under this intensity target...the absolute level of Indian carbon emissions might still rise by around 90-95 percent between 2005 and 2020, according to our GDP growth model estimates," PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP said in a statement. Still, it called the target "very encouraging." RICH-POOR DIVIDE Fault lines between rich and poor about sharing out the burden of combating global warming -- projected to bring more floods, droughts, wildfires and heatwaves -- are likely to dominate Copenhagen, where about 100 world leaders will gather on the final two days. In London, the climate consultancy Ecofys said global greenhouse gas emissions would almost double from 1990 levels by 2040 with current emissions promises. And rich nations are far from united in their approach. Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said on Thursday he would not rule out calling an early election to end a political deadlock over climate change policy, after parliament rejected for a second time his policy on cutting carbon emissions. In Brussels, a European Commission official said the European Union wanted more from China. China last week said it would aim to cut its carbon intensity goal by 40-45 percent by 2020, from 2005 levels. Some analysts say that could still mean a doubling of emissions. "There's an expectation they could go further," the EU official said. Summit hosts Denmark reiterated that it was now too late to agree a full, legally binding treaty in Copenhagen. Hedegaard said nations would have to set a deadline for completing work "as soon as possible in 2010". "I think that right now the biggest obstacle for Copenhagen will be finance," she told Reuters. Developed nations have yet to put cash on the table to help fund a deal. In Italy, environmentalists accused Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi of doing too little to avert climate change, and put up an ice statue of him in the ancient Roman Forum. It is timed to melt away on the day the conference opens.

Trump, tapping into the "America First" message he used when he was elected president last year, said the Paris accord would undermine the US economy, cost US jobs, weaken American national sovereignty and put the country at a permanent disadvantage to the other countries of the world. "We're getting out," Trump said at a ceremony in the White House Rose Garden under sunny skies on a warm June day, fulfilling a major election campaign pledge. "We don't want other leaders and other countries laughing at us any more. And they won't be," Trump said. "The same nations asking us to stay in the agreement are the countries that have collectively cost America trillions of dollars through tough trade practices and in many cases lax contributions to our critical military alliance," Trump added. Republican US congressional leaders backed Trump. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell applauded Trump "for dealing yet another significant blow to the Obama administration's assault on domestic energy production and jobs." Supporters of the accord, including some leading US business figures, called Trump's move a blow to international efforts to tackle dangers for the planet posed by global warming. Former Democratic President Barack Obama expressed regret over the pullout from a deal he was instrumental in brokering. "But even in the absence of American leadership; even as this administration joins a small handful of nations that reject the future; I'm confident that our states, cities, and businesses will step up and do even more to lead the way, and help protect for future generations the one planet we've got," Obama added. Trump, who has called climate change a hoax, said his administration would begin negotiations either to re-enter the Paris accord or to have a new agreement "on terms that are fair to the United States, its businesses, its workers, its people, its taxpayers." He complained in particular about China's terms under the agreement. International leaders reacted with disappointment, even anger. "The decision made by US President Trump amounts to turning their backs on the wisdom of humanity. I'm very disappointed... I am angry," Japanese Environment Minister Koichi Yamamoto told a news conference on Friday in an unusually frank tone. German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Emmanuel Macron and Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni said in a rare joint statement the agreement could not be renegotiated and urged their allies to hasten efforts to combat climate change and adapt. "While the US decision is disheartening, we remain inspired by the growing momentum around the world to combat climate change and transition to clean growth economies," said Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. A summit between Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and top European Union officials in Brussels on Friday will end with a joint statement - the first ever issued by China and the EU - committing both sides to full implementation of the Paris accord. Speaking in Berlin a day earlier, Premier Li said China, the world's biggest emitter of greenhouse gases, would stick to its commitment to fight climate change. "We made the decision to join, and I don't think we will (change) it," Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich was quoted as saying by RIA news agency. In India, one of the world's fastest growing major economies and a growing contributor to pollution, a top advisor to Prime Minister Narendra Modi vouched for intentions to switch to renewable power generation independent of the Paris accord. "The prime minister is very keen on this," Arvind Panagariya said. ISOLATED With Trump's action, the United States will walk away from nearly every other nation in the world on one of the pressing global issues of the 21st century. Syria and Nicaragua are the only other non-participants in the accord, signed by 195 nations in Paris in 2015. Fiji's Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama, who is the incoming head of the UN Climate Change Conferences, which formalized the 2015 pact, said Trump's decision was "deeply disappointing". Fiji, like many other small island nations, is seen as particularly vulnerable to global warming and a possible rise in ocean levels as a result of melting polar ice. US business leaders voiced exasperation with the Trump administration. "Today's decision is a setback for the environment and for the US's leadership position in the world," Goldman Sachs Group Inc Chief Executive Lloyd Blankfein wrote on Twitter. Tesla Inc CEO Elon Musk and Walt Disney CEO Robert Iger said they would leave White House advisory councils after Trump's move. Under the Paris accord, which took years to reach, rich and poor countries committed to reducing emissions of greenhouse gases generated by burning fossil fuels that are blamed by scientists for warming the planet. "I was elected to represent the citizens of Pittsburgh, not Paris," Trump said. Pittsburgh's mayor, Democrat Bill Peduto, shot back on Twitter that his city, long the heart of the US steel industry, actually embraced the Paris accord. The spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called the action a "major disappointment." The UN body that handles climate negotiations said the accord could not be renegotiated based on the request of a single nation. Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, speaking in Singapore on Friday, also called the US decision "disappointing... but not at all surprising," adding that Australia remained "committed to our Paris commitments." South Korea's foreign ministry said in a statement "it is regrettable that the US withdrawal from the Paris climate accord will undermine international responsibility and efforts to respond to climate change." 'DEVASTATING HARM' Trump said the United States would stop payments to the UN Green Climate Fund, in which rich countries committed billions of dollars to help developing nations deal with floods, droughts and other impacts from climate change. The White House said it would stick to UN rules for withdrawing from the pact. Those rules require a nation to wait three years from the date the pact gained legal force, Nov. 4, 2016, before formally seeking to leave. That country must then wait another year. Apple CEO Tim Cook expressed disappointment and said in an email to employees that he had spoken with Trump on Tuesday to try to persuade him to stay in the Paris accord. "It wasn't enough," he said. Other business leaders warned that the US economy would give away technological leadership. General Electric CEO Jeff Immelt said he was disappointed, adding: "Climate change is real. Industry must now lead and not depend on government." Democrats also blasted Trump. Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer called the decision "one of the worst policy moves made in the 21st century because of the huge damage to our economy, our environment and our geopolitical standing." The United States had committed to reduce emissions by 26 to 28 percent from 2005 levels by 2025. The United States accounts for more than 15 percent of total worldwide greenhouse gas emissions, second only to China. Leading climate scientists say greenhouse gas emissions trap heat in the atmosphere and have caused a warming planet, sea level rise, droughts and more frequent violent storms. A "Global Trends" report prepared by the US Director of National Intelligence's office, released on Jan. 9, warned that climate change posed security risks because of extreme weather, stress on water and food, and global tensions over how to manage the changes. Last year was the warmest since records began in the 19th Century, as global average temperatures continued a rise dating back decades that scientists attribute to greenhouse gases. Frank Rijsberman, Director-General of Seoul based Global Green Growth Institute expected international funding for investment needed to fight climate change would suffer, noting a $1 billion reduction in U.S. funding the Green Climate Fund in South Korea. Economists said the US withdrawal would potentially cost US jobs. China and the EU both already employ more workers in the renewable energy sector than the United States, according to the data from the International Renewable Energy Agency (Irena). "Winding back the climate agenda means that the US will be left behind in the clean energy transition as other global players, such as in Europe and China, demonstrate greater commitment to deploying low carbon and job-creating solutions to climate change," said Peter Kiernan, of the Economist Intelligence Unit.

Japan will accept numerical targets to cut global warming emissions in a new climate change pact, reversing its stance which came under fire at this month's UN-led talks over the deal, a newspaper reported on Sunday. The Mainichi Shimbun said Japan plans to present a proposal to divide nations into not only developed and developing countries, but also into a third group, that would include China and India, and set targets for each group. Japan will also set up a five-year, $10 billion "finance mechanism" to back up developing nations' efforts to tackle global warming with low-interest loans, the paper said. At talks in Bali this month, nations agreed on a two-year "roadmap" to adopt a new treaty to succeed the Kyoto Protocol, the main existing plan for combating global warming, beyond 2012. But it did not include a European Union-backed emissions cut target, which Japan, along with the United States, had rejected to the criticism of environmentalists. Mainichi said Japan, which will host next year's Group of Eight summit and has made the environment as its top agenda, decided to change its position after seeing the international outcry. Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda will announce the decision at a gathering of world economic leaders in Davos, Switzerland, next month, and Japan will come up with the new targets in time for the G8 Summit, the paper added. Japan is the world's fifth biggest emitter of greenhouse gases blamed for global warming, behind the United States, China, India and Russia.

BRIC countries have not become less vulnerable to global shocks despite their strong economic growth over the past four years, a survey showed on Monday. Risk consultancy Maplecroft said its Global Risk Atlas, which highlights potentially destabilising factors in the world's key growth economies, found that Brazil, Russia, India and China were no less susceptible to potential security or economic shocks than in previous years. "With hopes for a global economic recovery resting with the BRICs, investors and business seeking new high-growth, high-risk markets need to be aware of their limited resilience to global risks," said Maplecroft CEO Alyson Warhurst in the report. "A country's resilience to external and internal shocks is built up over time, so as the BRICs political risk environment improves we might see resilience strengthen, but our results reveal this is yet to happen." The term BRIC is used to describe the four biggest developing economies - Brazil, Russia, India and China. For some of them, governance and reform have not kept pace with economic growth, leaving them vulnerable to potential risks such as terrorism or climate change, the survey found. According to the report, India and Russia are among 41 countries classified as 'high risk', with poor governance, systemic corruption and terrorism identified as particular risks. China, meanwhile, is also exposed to security issues, but is classified as 'medium risk' due to the unlikelihood of social or political upheaval on a national scale, the report said. Brazil, also ranked 'medium risk', is considered the least susceptible to global risks of the four BRICs, due in part to the stability of its political structure and record of strong governance.

SINGAPORE,Dec 22,(bdnews24.com/Reuters) - A team of scientists has come up with a new definition of seawater which is set to boost the accuracy of projections for oceans and climate. Oceans help regulate the planet's weather by shifting heat from the equator to the poles. Changes in salinity and temperature are major forces driving global currents as well as circulation patterns from the surface to the seabed. Understanding exactly how much heat the ocean can absorb and accounting for tiny differences in salinity are crucial for scientists to figure how oceans affect climate and how that interaction could change because of global warming. "Getting these circulations right is central to the task of quantifying the ocean's role in climate change," said Trevor McDougall of Australia's state-backed research body the CSIRO, who is part of the international team that updated the methods to define sea water. He said the new definition allows for the first time to accurately calculate ocean heat content and take into account small differences in salinity. Previous methods assumed the composition of seawater was the same around the globe. Seawater is a mixture of 96.5 percent pure water with the remainder comprising salts, dissolved gases and other matter. McDougall said data from about 1,000 seawater samples showed global variations. There were small but significant differences in the composition of seawater between the North Pacific and North Atlantic, for example. "We've got along quite well for 30 years without delving deeper into what the sea salt is composed of," said McDougall, of the CSIRO's Wealth from Oceans Flagship in Hobart in the southern Australian state of Tasmania. But ever more complex computer models and greater demands to project how oceans and climate will behave in a warmer world mean an increasing need for more precise data. McDougall said salinity affects ocean density, and changes in density help drive huge vertical ocean circulation patterns. "Water sinks to the bottom and rises to the top in a very slow circulation that accounts for about half of the heat that the globe needs to transport from the equator to the poles." The constant circulation of heat by the oceans and atmosphere keeps the planet livable. "What we're doing is providing a more accurate way of estimating that circulation," McDougall said. McDougall chairs the Scientific Committee on Oceans Research, an international guiding body, and said he expected the new methods to be formally backed by the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission at a meeting in June next year.

Alibaba promised to achieve carbon neutrality by 2030 in its own direct emissions - known as "scope 1" - as well as its indirect "scope 2" emissions - derived from the consumption of electricity or heating. It also said it would reduce carbon intensity - the amount of carbon per unit of revenue - from the "scope 3" emissions - produced across its wider value chain in areas such as transportation, purchased goods and services and waste - by 50% by 2030. The company also pledged to cut overall CO2 across all its businesses by 1.5 gigatonnes by 2035. To achieve its goals, Alibaba plans to deploy new energy-saving, high-efficiency technologies, make further use of renewables and also explore "carbon removal initiatives" that could extract climate-warming greenhouse gas from the atmosphere. Daniel Zhang, the company's chief executive, said the company also sought to "mobilise actions and behavioural changes among consumers, merchants and partners in China and around the world". President Xi Jinping announced last year that China would aim to become carbon neutral by around 2060, putting the country's giant corporations under pressure to draw up their own roadmaps to reach "net zero". But China's giant tech firms remain hugely dependent on the country's coal-dominated energy system, with only a small number so far committed to switching to renewable sources of electricity. In a report published earlier this year, environment group Greenpeace ranked Tencent Holdings as the best-performing Chinese cloud service provider in terms of procuring renewable energy and cutting emissions. Huawei Technologies came second, Baidu Inc third and Alibaba fourth.

Britain says it hasn't decided yet how much energy it aims to get from renewable sources like the wind and sun by 2020, but industry players fear a lack of ambition. European Union leaders signed up in March to a mandatory target to get a fifth of all energy from renewable sources by 2020, to help fight climate change, but didn't decide how the target would be split between the 27 EU member states. Tough talk is expected ahead of a decision due in January, and the renewable energy industry fears Britain is aiming low. "There's an exceptionally defeatist attitude on renewables in the UK," said Leonie Greene, spokeswoman for Britain's Renewable Energy Association (REA). Renewable energy contributes less to global warming but is more expensive than conventional fossil fuels like oil and coal, and so needs support both in research and development and installation to drive investment and bring costs down. Greene cited EU data showing Britain obtained 1.8 percent of all its energy, including heat, transport and electricity, from renewable sources in 2005, versus an EU-27 average of 6.7 percent. "We have signed up to the EU 20 percent target... we haven't changed our position," a UK government spokesman said on Tuesday. "We're going through the process of deciding how that's going to be met." Britain said in May that present policies would enable the country to get 5 percent of its energy from renewable sources by 2020, and described the EU target as "an ambitious goal." According to documents leaked to the Guardian newspaper in August and again on Tuesday, British government officials estimate it would cost up to 4.4 billion pounds ($8.99 billion) annually by 2020 to double that share to 10 percent. The documents suggested Britain wanted as flexible an approach as possible, for example achieving targets using a similar mechanism to carbon offsetting, where you pay someone else to install renewable energy on your behalf. EU Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs said two weeks ago he supported such a trading approach, where richer EU governments invested in renewable energy in the newer, mostly ex-communist members of the bloc. He got a mixed reception from renewable energy companies.

Europe secured the world's widest agreement to battle climate change on Friday after paying east European states to accept changes that will punish their heavily polluting power sectors and ramp up electricity prices. The historic deal to cut carbon dioxide by a fifth by 2020 was secured despite an economic crisis by allowing a myriad of exemptions for industry, sparking criticism from environmental groups. "This is a flagship EU policy with no captain, a mutinous crew and several gaping holes in it," said Sanjeev Kumar of environment pressure group WWF. But French President Nicolas Sarkozy rejected that view, saying: "This is quite historic." "You will not find another continent in this world that has given itself such binding rules as we have just adopted," he added. The agreement came after a year-long battle dominated by a struggle between eastern and western Europe over the costs. The nine east European nations were seen as the final blockage to agreeing a package of measures aimed at tackling climate change but which will ramp up costs for their highly polluting coal-fired power sectors. Two swathes of funding will be distributed to them taken from around 12 percent of revenues from the EU's flagship emissions trading scheme (ETS), which makes industry buy permits to pollute. The money is partly framed as a reward for the massive drop in emissions they experienced when their industry collapsed in the wake of communism. Their power sectors were also partially exempted from paying for emissions permits from the ETS on a sliding scale starting with paying for 30 percent of emissions in 2013, rising to 100 percent in 2020. BAD GUY Hungary had battled to the end of negotiations for more money, while Italy fought to protect its glass, ceramics, paper and cast iron industries, and eventually dropped a threat to block the deal. "I can't use any veto on the climate question because I can't cast myself in the bad-guy role since the left would use this position to fight me politically," said Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. Measures were agreed to reduce the risk that carbon curbs would hurt European industry and reduce its ability to compete with less regulated rivals overseas. The biggest threats are seen for steel, aluminum, cement and chemicals. European industries exposed to international competition will receive free emissions permits if they will see a 5 percent increase in costs, a measure that is viewed as covering over 90 percent of EU industry. Britain came away having secured a boost to funding for innovative technology to capture and bury emissions from power stations underground in depleted North Sea gas fields. "Gordon Brown made clear this was one of his priorities not only because of the environment benefits, but also because it offer Europe the opportunity to lead the pack, securing jobs and growth," said a British diplomat.

Leaders of the world's biggest rich and developing countries meet on Thursday to seek ways to nurture the economic recovery and build safeguards against future catastrophes. US President Barack Obama, hosting his first Group of 20 summit, laid out an agenda that includes tackling one of the thorniest problems in the modern global economy -- how to even out massive imbalances between export powerhouses such as China and the deeply indebted United States. Short-term expectations for the summit were low. While there appeared to be consensus on principles such as building a more balanced world economy and clamping down on risky lending practices by banks to prevent a repeat of the financial crisis, there was little agreement on how it should be done. The two-day meeting in this Pennsylvania city, which has seen its own economic hard times as its once mighty steel industry lost ground to global competitors, starts with various bilateral talks on Thursday. Obama hosts a reception and working dinner in the evening. It is the third gathering of the G20 leaders since a meeting soon after the September 2008 collapse of Lehman Brothers investment bank that ushered in a severe global recession. Even countries that had escaped the banking crisis were hit by a steep drop in global trade, a stark reminder that the world economy is closely intertwined. Now that the recession in many countries appears to be ending, the G20 must sustain the sense of urgency seen in April when it agreed to work together to rescue the world economy and pledged hundreds of billions of dollars to finance the International Monetary Fund's crisis-fighting efforts. There are plenty of distractions this time. Obama has his hands full with domestic policy headaches such as his drive to reform the U.S. healthcare system. German Chancellor Angela Merkel is facing an election on Sunday. DON'T COUNT ON U.S. CONSUMPTION US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, who is expected to meet with G20 officials on Thursday, said the world should grasp that the United States must increase its savings, meaning that countries that were counting on US consumption to drive their own growth would have to look elsewhere. "If they learn anything from this crisis, it's that basic imperative," he said on Wednesday. But some countries were uncomfortable with setting any strict limits on how large the trading imbalances could be, and chafed at the idea of the G20 or the International Monetary Fund meddling in domestic economic policy. Geithner insisted that was not the intention, but given those concerns it was unlikely that the G20 would commit this week to anything beyond basic ideas about rebalancing. Illustrating the scale of the problem, China's private consumption equals little more than a third of its economy, while in the United States and Britain, consumption accounted for nearly three-quarters of the economy in boom times. By contrast, Chinese and Indian households last year saved about 40 percent and 32 percent of their disposable incomes. The US savings rate was just 3.2 percent. Many European leaders were pushing for the G20 to put greater emphasis on cracking down on lavish pay packages and bonuses for bankers whose risky investments later turned bad. They also wanted to see more progress from the United States in addressing climate change, although it was unlikely that much would be accomplished at this meeting. The clock is ticking for the United States to come through with some tangible policy before an international meeting on curbing global warming in Copenhagen in December. Emerging economies such as Brazil, which were caught in the downdraft of the financial crisis even though their banks had limited direct exposure to bad assets, were keen on forging agreement on tougher regulatory rules at this G20. "A senseless way of thinking and acting, which dominated the world for decades, has proved itself bankrupt," Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said of the economic models that soft-pedaled on regulation.

Japan hopes rich nation leaders will agree a goal for mid-century cuts in greenhouse gas emissions and a target year when they should peak, at a key summit it hosts this year, a senior official said on Thursday. Koji Tsuruoka, Director General for Global Issues at Japan's Foreign Ministry, said climate change would be a central issue at the Group of Eight (G8) gathering in the northern island of Hokkaido in July, with national emissions targets and funding to help fight warming and adapt to a warmer world also on the agenda. Last year's chair, Germany, failed to convince leading industrialised nations in the group to commit to cutting global emissions 50 percent from 1990 levels by mid-century. Tokyo hopes instead to build consensus around the far less ambitious target of bringing 2050 emissions to half of current levels -- although the United Nations top climate official would prefer a focus on goals for the next decade. "First we (must) agree on the long term goal, then we need to have a common goal on how and when we will be arriving at the peak of emissions," Tsuruoka told Reuters when asked what he hoped the conference would achieve. "This is an issue we believe could be usefully discussed." Japan's prime minister has said the country is keen to take a leading role in fighting climate change, although its delegates to UN climate talks in Bali last year were criticised by environmentalists for obstructionist tactics. Tokyo is also ambivalent about tools and goals the European Union has embraced as key to fighting global warming. Japan rejects a 2 degree Celsius maximum for global temperature rises and does not have legally binding emission caps for industry. Instead the country relies on voluntary cuts coordinated by a business lobby group, which leave Japan short of the reduction it has promised to make under the Kyoto Protocol. But Tsuruoka said Japan was criticised in Bali only because it focused more on the negotiations than on briefing the media, and its overall approach was marked by an open-ended search for solutions that would help it build global consensus. "The Europeans say two degrees and this has become a political issue rather than a scientific discussion, and we find that rather unfortunate" he said at his Tokyo office. "The real issue is how would we be able, as the world, to cut emissions in a way that would allow us to achieve whatever target we agree on," he added. DEVELOPING WORLD This wait-and-see approach to the best way to tackle emissions puts Tokyo in an ideal position to bring poorer countries -- struggling to balance economic growth with pressure to cut emissions -- to the negotiating table, Tsuruoka said. "The Japanese position is very principled but not dogmatic ... We believe climate change is an evolving issue, so if you position yourself in one position and are inflexible, you may not allow the circle to widen and include everyone," he said. Although the G8 groups only rich nations, major developing world emitters like China would likely be invited as well. "The G8 is not going to solve climate change," he said, adding that China may already be the world's top emitter. "Unless you engage the developing world seriously in addressing the issue of their own emissions, any future framework you set up is not going to save the world."

She was 12 and used her mom’s credit card to order a $29 Kylie Lip Kit in Candy K, a matte pink liquid lipstick and matching lip liner. Kylie Jenner’s debut makeup product sold out in seconds when it went on sale in 2015 (the website crashed, too), catapulting the youngest Kardashian-Jenner sibling to beauty mogul status at age 18. “It was a huge thing,” Dua said. “You needed to have one.” Lip Kits became so popular that they hit the New York City bar and bat mitzvah circuit. Emcees would toss the liquid lip colours and liners into a sea of dancing tweens in bandage dresses. Fast-forward five years. The global beauty market, which last year generated nearly $500 billion in sales, according to Euromonitor, a research firm, is teeming with celebrities, inundating social media feeds with lip gloss, face lotion and, most recently, vibrators (not technically beauty but beauty adjacent), with the promise of plump lips, glowing skin and a better sex life. New lines come out at a dizzying rate. There’s Harry Styles’ Pleasing, nail polish in tiny glass jars that look like old-fashioned perfume bottles, and Machine Gun Kelly’s UN/DN LAQR, nail polish with “paint splatter” shades and brushes for nail art. Ariana Grande has a new makeup line, space-themed, as does Chiara Ferragni, pink and sparkly. Billie Eilish and Addison Rae have released fragrances. There’s Lori Harvey’s (daughter of Steve Harvey) SKN by LH skin care collection, and Demi Lovato’s Demi Wand, an eight-speed vibrator (created with Bellesa, an internet pornography site marketed to women). Hailey Bieber has just confirmed that her Rhode Beauty will go on sale next year. (Rhode is her middle name.) It’s starting to feel like satire. When the Alex Rodriguez concealer for men (a creation with Hims & Hers) landed in May and populated celebrity news accounts like The Shade Room, commenters thought it was a joke. “When I see a celebrity beauty brand, I just don’t buy it,” Dua said. According to Hana Ben-Shabat, founder of Gen Z Planet, a research firm, many of Dua’s peers share the sentiment. Ben-Shabat’s data indicate that 19% of Gen Zers said celebrities influence their purchasing decisions, compared with 66% who cited their friends as the most influential. “Celebrities are saying, ‘This is my skin care, this is what I use,’ and ‘No, I don’t get Botox, it’s just my products,’ ” said Stacey Berke, 34, an addiction counsellor from Rochester, New York. “It makes it hard to believe.” The traditional celebrity endorsement is no longer enough. People need to know there’s expertise or, at the very least, an interest in what’s being sold to them. “It’s more apparent how transactional it is,” said Lucie Greene, a trend forecaster and founder of the Light Years consultancy. “It’s not something you’ve genuinely done because you’re passionate about lip gloss.” Moreover, everyone knows celebrities often undergo procedures, cosmetic and surgical, to look the way they do. There is no serum that can make a 50-year-old look two decades younger, and yes, we know that butt is fake. “The transition from ‘I’ve made cash hawking brands for others’ to ‘Why don’t I try and create something myself?’ is not always the right reason to create something,” said Richard Gersten, an investor and the founder of True Beauty Ventures. The firm has been approached by at least 10 celebrity or influencer brands over the past few months, he said. EVOLUTION OF CELEBRITY BEAUTY BRANDS Once, the only way to gain access to celebrities’ private world was through a spritz of their perfume, said Rachel ten Brink, a general partner of Red Bike Capital and a founder of Scentbird, a fragrance subscription service. Now fans are privy to the food, fashions, opinions and breakdowns, often in real time, of the famous people they follow. Social media redefined how the public connects with celebrities. “You own a piece by following a celebrity on Instagram, Twitter or TikTok,” ten Brink said. “You have access to them in a different way.” After the fragrance heyday of the early aughts, when seemingly everyone — Britney Spears, Justin Bieber, 50 Cent — came out with a personal scent, Kylie Cosmetics ushered in a new kind of celebrity brand: one that sold makeup (or skin care) online. Jenner created a blueprint for how to market and sell a brand, which until that point was usually at a department store counter or at Sephora. An Instagram post was all Jenner needed to sell millions of dollars worth of lipstick. Then, in 2017, came Rihanna’s Fenty Beauty, which fundamentally changed how the beauty industry approached inclusivity, shade ranges and conversations about race. In its first full year, the label generated more than half a billion dollars in revenue, according to LVMH, the French luxury group and co-owner of Fenty Beauty. There is also Goop, which over the past decade solidified itself as a so-called lifestyle brand. Its founder, Gwyneth Paltrow, sells skin care, supplements and bath salts alongside athleisure. Everyone rushed to copy these models. Still, some industry insiders are lukewarm on famous founders, including John Demsey, executive group president of the Estée Lauder Cos, owner of Estée Lauder, MAC Cosmetics and Clinique. He has worked with hundreds of celebrities, but there won’t be a brand entirely based on one, he said. On Dec 1, MAC, the OG of A-list collaborations (Mary J Blige, Rihanna, Lady Gaga and Mariah Carey have all worked with the brand), released its new Viva Glam lipstick without a celebrity for the first time in 27 years. “It just seemed right now,” Demsey said of the red, blue and yellow lipsticks that come in tubes printed with Keith Haring designs. “We went back to the essential core essence of ‘What’s the product?’ and ‘What’s the brand?’” A collaboration captures a moment in time; a brand is forever. THE INDUSTRY’S DIRTY LITTLE SECRET The majority of celebrity beauty brands are a flop. Everybody interviewed for this article, from executives at multibillion-dollar companies to high school students, was asked to name one to three successful celebrity beauty brands besides Kylie Cosmetics, Fenty and Goop. None could. “Living by influence alone is not enough,” Demsey said. Nor is having tens of millions of Instagram or TikTok followers. In June, Vanessa Hudgens (43 million followers on Instagram) and Madison Beer (29 million followers on Instagram) introduced Know Beauty, a skin care line that prescribes a regimen based on a cheek swab DNA test. It had a splashy debut but hasn’t been particularly active since, though products are still for sale on its website. Know Beauty declined to comment on the company’s business. Lady Gaga’s Haus Laboratories, introduced to much fanfare two years ago, missed striking a chord with her rabid fan base. Earlier this year, the brand brought in a new executive team to focus on product innovation, ingredients and packaging. Its newest Casa Gaga collection is a departure, aesthetically, from the original black packaging. Lipsticks, highlighters, blush and more now come in white compacts and tubes with gold accents. Haus Laboratories declined to comment on the company’s business. Other high-profile misadventures include YouTuber Tati Westbrook, who announced that she was shutting down Tati Beauty in November, and Rflct, the skin care brand started by gamer Rachell Hofstetter that closed in October after just two weeks because of unsubstantiated anti-blue-light claims. What most people don’t know is that a handful of companies have built many of the celebrity lines we see today. These brand factories, or “incubators,” specialize in creating several labels at once, and fast. They are either developed with a celebrity or designed with the intention of bringing on a celebrity afterward. For example, Beach House Group created Millie Bobby Brown’s Florence by Mills, Kendall Jenner’s Moon oral care line and Tracee Ellis Ross’ Pattern hair care. Forma Brands, owner of Morphe, is behind Jaclyn Cosmetics and Grande’s R E M  Beauty. Maesa built Drew Barrymore’s Flower Beauty, Kristin Ess Hair, Taraji P Henson’s TPH by Taraji hair care and Jada Pinkett Smith’s Hey Humans, a personal care line. Most lines created by brand factories are not designed to be longstanding businesses, experts say, though Pattern, by Ross, appears to be doing well and may outlive many of its peers. “Incubators are intentionally set up to churn,” said Greg Portell, a partner at the Kearney consulting firm. “They are much more interested in speed and velocity, not building a brand. It just happens to be the mode of the day.” Shaun Neff, a founder of Beach House Group, said his team comes up with concepts for new companies and then finds a celebrity to pair it with them. “Kendall is the biggest supermodel in the world and has a great fan base, and we think she has great aesthetic and taste and good style,” Neff replied when asked how Jenner came to be the co-creator of the Kendall Jenner Teeth Whitening Pen and the face of Moon, the oral care brand that sells Cosmic Gel toothpaste in glittery silver tubes, like an edgier Colgate or Crest. Changing cultural values are also a factor in the decline of celebrity brands. Older customers may be more lured by celebrity, but it’s harder to entice young millennials and Gen Zers who place a premium on authenticity. Dua questioned the skin care know-how of Brown, the 17-year-old star of “Stranger Things,” whose line came out when the actress was 15: “I don’t really trust it because what expertise do they have?” And wearing the makeup of someone else runs counter to self-expression, an important tenet of the younger generations. “They don’t want to be like anyone else, even a celebrity,” ten Brink said. “They don’t want to just look like Addison Rae.” © 2021 The New York Times Company

The Constitutional Court annulled the election on Friday and the chairman of the Election Commission said it would be months before a new vote could be held, leaving Yingluck at the head of an enfeebled caretaker government with limited powers. The crisis is the latest chapter in an eight-year battle between Bangkok's middle class and royalist establishment against supporters of Yingluck and Thaksin Shinawatra, her brother, who was ousted as premier by the army in 2006. He lives in Dubai to avoid a jail term for abuse of power. After months of restraint, Thaksin's "red shirts" supporters are making militant noises under hardline new leaders. "On April 5, red brothers and sisters, pack your belongings and be ready for a major assembly. The destination may be Bangkok or other places, it will be announced later," Jatuporn Prompan, chairman of the "red-shirts" United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship, told supporters late on Saturday. Jatuporn helped organize a "red-shirts" uprising against a previous government that ended in a bloody military crackdown in May 2010. More than 90 people were killed during the protests in central Bangkok. Jatuporn still faces terrorism charges related to the violence in 2010. In the latest political crisis, 23 people have died and more than 700 have been wounded since November. Speaking to an estimated 10,000 people in Pattaya southeast of Bangkok, another leader, Nisit Sintuprai, sent a warning to Suthep Thaugsuban, the former opposition politician who has led the protests against Yingluck since November. "One big reason why we are on the move again is to tell Suthep that the majority in this country want democracy, want government through elections. We cannot accept a prime minister nominated by your people," he said. Suthep's People's Democratic Reform Committee (PDRC) wants unspecified electoral changes before any election, aiming to dilute the influence of Thaksin and his massive support among the rural poor in the north and northeast. Parties led by or allied to Thaksin have won every election since 2001 and Yingluck's Puea Thai Party is widely expected to win any election held under current arrangements. IMPEACHMENT LOOMS FOR PM YINGLUCK Suthep's supporters disrupted the election on February 2 and prevented voting in 28 constituencies. The Constitutional Court ruled on Friday that made the ballot illegal because voting is supposed to be held across the country on the same day. The Election Commission will meet on Monday to decide how to proceed, but it had been reluctant to hold the February election because of the political climate and may push for talks between the opposing sides before setting a new polling date. It is far from clear that Yingluck's caretaker government can struggle on much longer. The most immediate threat is her possible impeachment for alleged dereliction of duty over a disastrous rice-buying scheme that has run up huge losses. This scheme bolstered Yingluck's support in a 2011 election but thousands of farmers, normally solid supporters of Thaksin, have demonstrated in Bangkok this year because they have not been paid for their rice. Yingluck has to defend herself before an anti-corruption commission by March 31 and a decision to impeach her could come soon after that. She could then be removed from office by the upper house Senate, which is likely to have an anti-Thaksin majority after an election for half of its members on March 30. Some analysts say it will fall to the Senate to then appoint a "neutral" prime minister, probably the type of establishment figure the anti-government protesters have been demanding. "Independent agencies are being quite obvious that they want to remove her and her entire cabinet to create a power vacuum, claim that elections can't be held and then nominate a prime minister of their choice," said Kan Yuenyong, an analyst at the Siam Intelligence Unit, referring to the courts and the anti-corruption commission. "If they run with this plan, then the government's supporters will fight back and the next half of the year will be much worse than what we saw in the first half," he said. VIOLENCE DAMAGES ECONOMY Encouraged by the dwindling number of protesters and relative calm on the streets, the government lifted a state of emergency on March 19. But three grenades exploded around midnight on Thursday near the home of a Constitutional Court judge ahead of the election ruling and police said a car bomb went off early on Saturday near a PDRC camp in north Bangkok and near a government administrative complex protesters have disrupted for weeks. Explosive devices went off in three incidents late on Friday in Chiang Mai province, a Thaksin stronghold, and one person was seriously injured, police said. One target was Boon Rawd Brewery, which makes Singha beer. A member of the family that owns it has been prominent in PDRC rallies. Consumer confidence is at a 12-year low, prompting the central bank on Friday to cut its economic growth forecast for 2014 to 2.7 percent from 3 percent. In October last year, just before the protests flared up, it had forecast 4.8 percent. The stock market barely moved after Friday's court decision. Some stock analysts have taken the scrapping of the election as a positive move, believing it will spur negotiations between the political opponents. Rating agency Standard and Poor's took a different view. "We believe the Thai court's decision dims prospects for any near-term resolution of Thailand's political split and is in line with our expectations of protracted and possibly increasing political risks," Agost Benard, its associate director of sovereign ratings, said in a statement.

President Hu Jintao said on Tuesday China was committed to fighting climate change, both at home and in cooperation with the rest of the world, but stopped short of offering any new policies. Britain, Sweden and other countries have accused China of obstructing December's Copenhagen climate summit, which ended with a non-binding accord that set a target of limiting global warming to a maximum 2 degrees Celsius but was scant on details. Chinese officials have said their country would never accept outside checks of its plans to slow greenhouse gas emissions and could only make a promise of "increasing transparency". Hu told a study meeting attended by senior politicians, including Premier Wen Jiabao, that China took the problem seriously, state television reported. "We must fully recognise the importance, urgency and difficulty of dealing with climate change," the report paraphrased Hu as saying. "We must make it an important strategy for our socio-economic development." The government says some areas of the country are already seeing the effects of climate change, with higher temperatures and reduced rainfall in some parts and stronger storms in others. China has pledged to cut the amount of carbon dioxide produced for each unit of economic growth by 40-45 percent by 2020, compared with 2005 levels. This "carbon intensity" goal would let China's greenhouse gas emissions keep rising, but more slowly than economic growth. Hu said energy saving, emission cuts and environmental awareness must be inculcated into not only every government worker but Chinese society as a whole, state television said. "Climate change is a common, important challenge faced by countries around the world," he said. "For a long time, we have paid a great deal of importance to tackling the climate change issue on the basis of being responsible to our own people and the people of the world." As the world's biggest emitter, China has faced growing pressure from developed countries and some poor ones to set firmer and deeper goals to curb its greenhouse gases. China says its emissions historically have been much lower than the developed world's, and its emissions per capita are still much lower than those of wealthy societies. "Dealing with the problem must be done on the basis of the country's economic development," Hu said. "We must proactively participate in global cooperation to fight climate change," he said.

Australia's government has shelved plans for an emissions trading scheme for at least three years due to strong opposition in parliament and falling election-year support, local media said on Tuesday. The government had decided not to start the scheme until 2013 at the earliest, taking it beyond this year's election and shaving A$2.5 billion ($2.3 billion) in compensation for the emissions regime from the May 11 budget, Fairfax newspapers and ABC radio said, quoting sources. Resources Minister Martin Ferguson refused to confirm the reports, but said the government was still committed to fighting climate change, which Prime Minister Kevin Rudd called "the greatest moral challenge of our generation". "The issue of health care is going to occupy a lot of people's minds, I might also say, so is the question of economic management. Even if we don't get a price on carbon there's still a lot to be done," Ferguson told Australian radio. The government had planned to cut Australia's carbon emissions by 5 percent by 2020, forcing 1,000 large company emitters to buy permits to pollute from July 2011. But the plan, which capped carbon emissions at A$10 a tonne for first year and channeled compensation to energy and trade-exposed industries like AGL Energy, BlueScope steel and OneSteel, has been twice rejected in the upper house of parliament and faced a third defeat within weeks. The government decided last week to cut the scheme from the May 11 national budget, bowing to the political reality that a hostile Senate was refusing to pass it, Fairfax newspapers said. The decision means Rudd's Labor will take its emissions legislation off the table until after elections late this year, which polls have Rudd on course to win. A spokeswoman for Climate Change Minister Penny Wong said the government remained committed to the emissions scheme, or CPRS, as the best way for Australia to reduce its carbon pollution levels, which are the world's highest on a per capita basis. "The blocking of the CPRS legislation by the opposition has caused delays and created uncertainties which will of course affect the budget treatment of the CPRS," the spokeswoman said. The Australian Greens, who control five of seven Senate crossbench votes the government needs to pass legislation, said the decision to abandon the emissions scheme meant the government should look at interim alternatives like a levy on polluters. "In the face of ever stronger warnings from scientists, the government must not throw the baby out with the bathwater and abandon any plans to put a price on carbon," Greens Deputy Leader Christine Milne said. The shelving of the scheme comes as a survey conducted by Auspoll for the Climate Institute and the Conservation Foundation found voter concern about global warming had slipped 9 percent since May last year, but was still strong at 68 percent. Just 36 percent of voters believed Rudd was the best person to handle climate issues, a fall of 10 per cent from February last year, while 40 percent said there was no difference between the government and opposition conservatives. "About two-thirds of Australians are concerned over climate change. We think that the parties that take stronger action on climate change will be rewarded at the next poll," said Climate Institute chief executive John Connor. ($1=1.079 Australian Dollars)

US President Barack Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping made common cause on Monday with other countries to stress the urgency of an agreement to slow a rise in global temperatures blamed for spurring floods, heat waves and rising sea levels. But as the leaders left Paris, negotiators from 195 countries were left to work on a draft text of more than 50 pages still riddled with disagreements. The main sticking point is how to come up with the billions of dollars needed to finance the cleaner energy sources that are badly needed if emerging countries are to develop without relying heavily on fossil fuels. Many delegates said the large turnout at the UN climate summit in Paris, weeks after attacks by Islamic State militants killed 130 people, was a sign of hope after the last summit collapsed in failure in 2009 in Copenhagen amid rancour between rich and poor nations. French President Francois Hollande said he was encouraged by the start of talks that are planned to run untilDec. 11. "It's set off well but it has to arrive too," he told reporters. He said there were "two reefs. Either we overload the vessel and it sinks or we empty it and it goes nowhere." The technical talks repeated little of Monday's grand language. Countries restated their negotiating positions with few hints of likely compromise. China's delegate Su Wei "noted with concern" what he called a lack of commitment by the rich to make deep cuts in greenhouse gas emissions and help developing nations with new finance to tackle global warming. NITTY GRITTY "It's back to the nitty gritty," said Alden Meyer, of the Union of Concerned Scientists, adding the opening day was "all good but that does not resolve the crunch issues." Obama: climate change an economic, security imperative "It is still a text with many options," Peruvian Environment Minister Manuel Pulgar Vidal told Reuters, adding with a shrug "but everybody has shown their commitment to have an agreement." The mood was brightened by major announcements including a plan by India and France to mobilise $1 trillion for solar power for some of the world's poorest people and a private sector initiative led by Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates to mobilise billions of dollars for new energy research and development. "Leaders still have the scars of Copenhagen on their hearts and brains," Yvo de Boer, who was the UN's climate chief in Copenhagen, said. "The fact that so many leaders came back here on the opening day to send encouragement ... is a sign that they really want to move," he said. A deal in Paris would be by far the strongest ever agreed to bind both rich and poor nations to limit greenhouse gas emissions, which scientists say have blanketed the earth, raised global temperatures and begun upending the planet's climate system. Liz Gallagher, of the London-based E3G environmental think-tank, said the opening day had "made an agreement more likely". But she said the biggest gap was over climate finance. Developing nations want the rich to pledge rising amounts beyond the current goal of $100 billion a year by 2020 to help them obtain clean energy sources and adapt to the effects of climate change, such as more floods, droughts and intense storms. Other disputes concern how to define a long-term goal for phasing out fossil fuels. In June, developed nations in the Group of Seven (G7) signed up for a goal of decarbonising the world economy by 2100. China and India say they need to rely on coal to lift millions from poverty and prefer a shift to low-carbon development this century. So far, pledges made by about 170 countries to curb greenhouse gas emissions beyond 2020, made in the run-up to the Paris summit, are too weak to limit rising global temperatures to 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial times. That is widely viewed as a threshold for dangerous and potentially catastrophic changes in the planet's climate system.

Floodwater swamped a new area of Thailand's capital on Wednesday as some shops started rationing food and the prime minister warned that parts of Bangkok could be flooded for up to a month. Residents of Bang Phlad, a riverside district some way from Bangkok's three swamped northern districts, were told to urgently evacuate as floods hit the capital on a second front, deepening anxiety in the city of at least 12 million people, many of whom were expected to flee ahead of a special five-day holiday. "After assessing the situation, we expect floodwater to remain in Bangkok for around two weeks to one month before going into the sea," Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra told reporters. "However ... we shouldn't face water as high as two or three metres staying for two or three months as we've seen in other provinces." Thailand's worst flooding in half a century has killed at least 366 people since mid-July and disrupted the lives of nearly 2.5 million, with more than 113,000 in shelters and 720,000 people seeking medical attention. Bangkok residents scrambled to stock up on food, but bottled water was nowhere to be seen and some shops restricted customers to small quantities of food to prevent hoarding. With high tide approaching in the Gulf of Thailand, Seri Supharatid, director of Rangsit University's Centre on Climate Change and Disaster, said the city's fate rested with river dykes holding. "In the worst-case scenario, if all the dykes break, all parts of Bangkok would be more or less flooded," Seri said. The economic damage is difficult to quantify, but the central bank has revised its growth forecast for Southeast Asia's second-biggest economy to 3.1 percent this year from 4.1 percent. The finance minister's projection was a gloomier 2 percent. Flooding has forced the closure of seven industrial estates in Ayutthaya, Nonthaburi and Pathum Thani provinces bordering Bangkok, causing billions of dollars of damage and disrupting international supply chains for industry and putting about 650,000 people temporarily out of work. The cabinet on Tuesday agreed on a 325 billion baht ($6.6 billion pound) budget to rebuild the country, while city authorities and the Commerce Ministry were meeting with industrial estate operators, hotels and food producers to try to minimise the damage and kick-start a recovery. SWELLING RIVER Authorities have called a holiday from Thursday until Monday to allow people to get out Bangkok, although financial markets will remain open. The rising tide could complicate efforts to drive water from the swelling Chao Phraya river out to the sea, putting more pressure on a city that accounts for 41 percent of Thailand's gross domestic product. Heavy rain could also deepen the crisis and thunderstorms were forecast for Wednesday. The floods are expected to take a toll on Thailand's tourism industry, which employs more than 2 million people and makes up 6 percent of GDP. Tourism Minister Chumphol Silpa-archa said arrivals could be 500,000 to 1 million below the government's target of 19 million this year. Three northern districts of Bangkok have been under water since Saturday, with army vehicles driving at a snail's pace through 1.5 metres of water, ferrying evacuees away. Some people were being evacuated for a second time, with 4,000 sheltering in Don Muang moving to the province of Chon Buri. Evacuees at a university in Pathum Thani province also had to move on as floodwater engulfed the campus. To tackle the flooding, the authorities have pumped an estimated 8 billion cubic metres of water daily through canals and a river around Bangkok's east and west towards the sea. But the large volume of water flowing through the city remains a concern, with the vast Chao Phraya river at record levels and running past high-end hotels, embassies and the Sathorn and Silom areas of the city's business district. Water has engulfed two areas, with levels climbing higher than half a metre in the densely populated Bang Phlad district near to the Chao Phraya and closer to the commercial heart. Bangkok Governor Sukhumbhand Paribatra said the situation was "critical" in Bang Phlad. Overloaded trucks shuttled out evacuees, gas stations were inundated and shop owners pulled down shutters and added sandbags to makeshift defence walls. "My shop is damaged. I've prepared for this, but it's not enough -- there's too much water," said grocery store owner Vichit Pookmaitree. As panic mounted, shoppers at a central Bangkok hypermarket run by Big C Supercenter Pcl were being restricted to one packet of rice and one tray of eggs. Toilet paper was also being rationed. Bottled water had run out. In some areas, people are already complaining about a deterioration in the quality of normally drinkable tap water. The Metropolitan Waterworks Authority said floodwater had got into raw canal water used for its supply. Chemicals were being used to purify it. Shares in Thai beverage firm Haad Thip Pcl surged more than 6 percent on Wednesday on expectations the company would benefit from the huge demand.

World Monuments Fund (WMF), a New York-based non-profit organisation, recently announced its list of selected places facing global challenges on its website. The Watch is announced every two years and includes sites nominated by individuals and community-based organisations that span the globe. “The Mosque City of Bagerhat, the impressive religious landscape of ancient Khalifatabad, requires effective climate adaptation to ensure its survival and continued service to the community of modern-day Bagerhat,” the WMF said. Sixty Dome Mosque. Photo: Mostafigur Rahman Since the programme’s inception in 1996, the Watch has been a proven tool for raising awareness about heritage places in need of protection and galvanising action and support for their preservation. To date, WMF has contributed more than $110 million toward projects at more than 300 Watch sites. Sixty Dome Mosque. Photo: Mostafigur Rahman The 2022 call resulted in more than 225 nominations that underwent extensive internal and external review by the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) and an independent panel of international heritage experts responsible for the final selection. The sites selected in the Watch illuminate the effects of global issues such as climate change, imbalanced tourism, underrepresentation, and recovery from the crisis, underscoring the need for greater action to support heritage places and the people who care for them, the WMF said. The Mosque City of Bagerhat, also a UNESCO World Heritage site, was founded by Muslim saint Khan Jahan Ali, also known as Ulug Khan, on the banks of the Bhairab River in the 15th-century. Nine Dome Mosque. Photo: Mostafigur Rahman The city boasts of 360 mosques, of which the Sixty Dome Mosque is the largest. Other mosques include the Singar Mosque, the Nine Dome Mosque, the Tomb of Khan Jahan, the Bibi Begni Mosque and the Ronvijoypur Mosque. Nine Dome Mosque. Photo: Mostafigur Rahman The ancient city, formerly known as Khalifatabad, offers a tantalising glimpse into the initial period of the development of Muslim architecture in Bengal. The city was created in the space of a few years but was covered up by the jungle after its founder's death in 1459. It remained obscured from view for many centuries after that. Singar Mosque. Photo: Mostafigur Rahman “This year’s Watch demonstrates that heritage preservation can offer innovative solutions to contemporary global challenges,” said WMF chief Benedicte de Montlaur. Singar Mosque. Photo: Mostafigur Rahman Bangladesh is one of the major countries affected by climate change from across the world. As a result, the heritage sites at Bagerhat have been tackling floods and disasters for a long time as they are situated near the vast estuary of the Bengal delta, said architect Imamur Hossain, who is working as a researcher for the WMF.  The rising sea level, cyclones and tidal surges also pose a threat to the sites, he added. Chunakhola Mosque. Photo: Mostafigur Rahman “Groundwater salinity is also affecting lands as farmers are investing more in shrimp enclosures to turn profits,” said architect Nishant Upadhyay, Hossain's co-worker on the project. Chunakhola Mosque. Photo: Mostafigur Rahman The other at-risk heritage sites include Tiretta Bazaar (Kolkata), Hitis (Water Fountains) of the Kathmandu Valley (Nepal), Koagannu Mosques and Cemetery (Maldives), Hurst Castle (United Kingdom), Yanacancha-Huaquis Cultural Landscape (Peru), La Maison du Peuple, Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso), Cultural Landscape of the Bunong People (Cambodia), Garcia Pasture (US), Africatown (US), Kinchela Aboriginal Boys Training Home (Australia), Abydos (Egypt), Lamanai (Belize) and Teotihuacan (Mexico).

Japan will call for an early solution to a feud with China over disputed gas fields when foreign ministers meet for broad-ranging talks in Beijing this weekend, a Japanese ministry official said. Frosty relations between the Asian neighbours have thawed over the past year -- an improvement symbolised by this week's landmark port call to Tokyo by a Chinese missile destroyer. But the dispute over how to develop natural gas in the East China Sea has shown scant signs of a solution. "I hope the Chinese side will make a political decision on this issue to make a final agreement," the Japanese foreign ministry official told reporters on Thursday. "The Chinese side is very much aware of the importance of reaching an agreement on this issue," he said, adding Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura would raise the issue in talks with Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi in Beijing on Saturday. Those talks will be followed by others on macro-economic policies and Beijing's currency reforms, climate change, and trade and investment. An 11th round of talks on how to develop natural gas in the East China Sea ended earlier this month with no sign of progress, prompting Japan's top government spokesman to say the dispute could affect a planned visit to China by Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda. China quickly denied that that was the case. The Japanese official said that resolving the gas feud was not a precondition for Fukuda's visit, which Tokyo has said could be later this year or early in 2008. But he noted that then-Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao had agreed in April that the two sides would report to their leaders on a compromise in the autumn. "This is the timing for us to accelerate the efforts," he said. "(It is) not only the economic implications, but Japanese public opinion." Both sides are eager to secure new oil and gas supplies but disagree over where the maritime boundary separating their exclusive economic zones should lie. China's state-controlled CNOOC Ltd said in April that it had begun producing gas from Tianwaitian field and was ready to begin producing from the larger Chunxiao field in the area, raising fears in resource-poor Japan fears that such production could siphon gas from what Tokyo sees as its side of the zone.

The deal would deliver the first significant infusion of federal dollars into the economy since April, as negotiators broke through months of partisan gridlock that had scuttled earlier talks, leaving millions of Americans and businesses without federal help as the pandemic raged. While the plan is roughly half the size of the $2.2 trillion stimulus law enacted in March, it is one of the largest relief packages in modern history. “We can finally report what our nation has needed to hear for a very long time,” Sen Mitch McConnell, the majority leader, said Sunday night. “More help is on the way.” It was expected to be merged with a sweeping catchall spending measure that would keep the government funded for the remainder of the fiscal year, creating a $2.3 trillion behemoth whose passage will be Congress’ last substantive legislative achievement before adjourning for the year. The deal came together after a weekend of frenzied negotiating only hours before the government was set to run out of funding and two weeks before the next Congress was to convene on Jan 3. Still, even as it prepared to pass a consequential measure, Congress was at the peak of its dysfunction, having left so little time to complete it that lawmakers faced a series of contortions to get it across the finish line. With additional time needed to transform their agreement into legislative text, both chambers had to approve a one-day stopgap spending bill — their third such temporary extension the past 10 days — to avoid a government shutdown while they were finalising the deal. The House did so on Sunday night, and the Senate was expected to follow suit. Final votes on the spending package were expected on Monday to approve it and clear it for President Donald Trump’s signature, but had yet to be scheduled. Although text was not immediately available, the agreement was expected to provide $600 stimulus payments to millions of American adults earning up to $75,000. It would revive lapsed supplemental federal unemployment benefits at $300 a week for 11 weeks — setting both at half the amount provided by the original stimulus law. It would also continue and expand benefits for gig workers and freelancers, and it would extend federal payments for people whose regular benefits have expired. The measure would also provide more than $284 billion for businesses and revive the Paycheck Protection Program, a popular federal loan program for small businesses that lapsed over the summer. It would expand eligibility under the program for nonprofits, local newspapers and radio and TV broadcasters and allocate $15 billion for performance venues, independent movie theatres and other cultural institutions devastated by the restrictions imposed to stop the spread of the coronavirus. The agreement is also expected to provide billions of dollars for testing, tracing and vaccine distribution, as well as $82 billion for colleges and schools, $13 billion in increased nutrition assistance, $7 billion for broadband access and $25 billion in rental assistance. The agreement is also expected to extend an eviction moratorium set to expire at the end of the year. “We have now reached agreement on a bill that will crush the virus and put money in the pockets of working families who are struggling,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi wrote to Democrats on Sunday in a letter outlining some of the details of the measure. “This emergency relief bill is an important initial step.” While Trump’s signature will be on the law, its effect will be far more significant for President-elect Joe Biden, who faces the task of shepherding the shaky economic recovery. Biden, who quietly pushed for lawmakers to strike a compromise that would deliver at least some modest help after months of congressional inaction, has said the package is nowhere near large enough to meet the nation’s needs, and is expected to seek yet another major economic relief package after taking office in January. Economists had warned that a stimulus measure of the size under discussion on Capitol Hill would fall short of the level of assistance needed to support the economic recovery, though the bill eclipsed the roughly $800 billion stimulus package that Congress approved in 2009 to counter the Great Recession. Democrats, having ceded demands for another multitrillion-dollar package, were already calling on Biden to act quickly on a much larger relief plan. “Once this deal is signed into law, it cannot be the final word on congressional relief,” said Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York, the Democratic leader, who referred to the agreement as a “down payment.” With Republicans bent on keeping the cost of any relief under $1 trillion, negotiators scaled back the aid substantially from the stimulus measure enacted in March, when the ruinous toll of the pandemic was just becoming clear. As congressional leaders clashed over their competing priorities for another round of aid, coronavirus cases surged, millions of Americans slipped into poverty and countless businesses, restaurants and performance venues shuttered as their revenues evaporated amid the pandemic. “There is no doubt this new agreement contains input from our Democratic colleagues — it is bipartisan,” said McConnell, who refused for months to act on a stimulus package, saying that Congress should pause and consider the deficit before providing more relief. “But these matters could have been settled long ago.” Emboldened in the aftermath of the November election, a bipartisan group of moderates brokered their own $748 billion compromise, pressuring congressional leaders to redouble their efforts to find a deal. Ultimately, the top two Democrats and top two Republicans on Capitol Hill, huddling with their staff and at times Steven Mnuchin, the Treasury secretary, wrangled the final agreement over a few chaotic days the week before Christmas. The deal was far narrower than the one Democrats had long insisted upon, and nearly twice the size of the one Republicans had said they could ever accept in the days leading up to the November election. At the core of the breakthrough was a mutual agreement to drop critical priorities championed by one party and loathed by the other: a Democratic push to establish a direct stream of funds for cash-strapped state and local governments, and a Republican demand for sweeping liability protections for businesses, hospitals and other institutions open during the pandemic. But it nearly fell apart as Democrats sought additional avenues to provide relief to state and local governments suffering significant revenue shortages, and as Republicans fought to limit the power of the Federal Reserve to provide credit to municipalities, businesses or other institutions, as it has done this year through an array of emergency lending programmes intended to stabilise the economy during the pandemic in times of crisis. Sen Patrick Toomey, mounted a last-minute push to ensure that those programmes would end and prevent the Fed and Treasury Department from setting up any similar one in the future. Democrats balked, arguing that the move would deprive the Fed of critical tools for bolstering the economy, and tie Biden’s hands as he confronts a daunting public health and economic crisis. Shortly before midnight Saturday, in talks with Schumer, Toomey agreed to narrow his language considerably, to a provision that would bar only emergency lending programmes that were more or less exact copycats of the ones newly employed in 2020. Democrats also secured an extension for state and local governments to spend money allocated under the March stimulus law, ahead of a Dec 31 deadline. The agreement also reflected a last-ditch effort by progressive Democrats, who found unlikely allies in both Trump and Sen Josh Hawley, to secure a more robust round of direct payments. Hours before lawmakers announced a final agreement, the president, who had been remarkably absent from the talks, exhorted Congress to reach a deal and called for “more direct payments.” The foundation of the package unveiled Sunday mirrors the core of the March stimulus law, as lawmakers sought to continue programmes that proved to be critical lifelines for millions of struggling Americans and businesses and address concerns that have emerged over recent months. Without congressional action, as many as 12 million Americans were set to lose access to expanded and extended unemployment benefits set to expire after Christmas. A number of other critical relief provisions, including an eviction moratorium, were set to expire on Dec 31. Confronted with widespread Republican reluctance to another round of federal spending, lawmakers curtailed a number of the benefits. Dependents who are 17 and older will not be eligible for the $600 direct payments, although lawmakers agreed to provide direct checks to people who filed jointly with a person who uses an Individual Taxpayer Identification Number instead of a Social Security number, according to one person familiar with the emerging agreement. The last round of $1,200 stimulus payments prohibited that, blocking the estimated 1.2 million American citizens married to immigrants in the country illegally from receiving them. While lawmakers agreed to extend multiple unemployment programs into spring, Republicans insisted that the benefits be gradually phased out by early April. Democrats had hoped for a hard end date for the jobless programmes to pressure negotiators back to the table in early spring before they expired. The relief package was to be paired with a $1.4 trillion catchall government spending bill. Included are the 12 annual appropriation bills to fund every federal department and social safety net programmes, as well as an array of legislative add-ons lawmakers attached to ensure their priorities could be enacted before Congress adjourns for the year. For a Congress that has been gripped by legislative paralysis in recent years, the spending measure includes a remarkable array of major policy initiatives, according to Pelosi and Schumer. It contains a ban on surprise medical bills that happen when patients unexpectedly receive care from an out-of-network health provider. Instead of sending those charges to patients, hospitals and doctors will now need to work with health insurers to settle the bills. Lawmakers have spent two years drafting the agreement, which received widespread bipartisan support but faced significant opposition from doctor and hospital groups. Democrats secured significant college affordability provisions, such as a significant expansion of the federal Pell grant program for low-income students and reversing a decades-old ban on extending the grants to prisoners pursuing degrees behind bars. The spending package also includes significant bipartisan deals to counter climate change and promote clean energy, the first such legislation to pass Congress in nearly a decade. Among the provisions is legislation that would cut the use of powerful planet-warming chemicals used in air-conditioners and refrigerators, and amount to a rare Republican rebuke to Trump on the issue of global warming.   c.2020 The New York Times Company

World leaders open a conference on the global food crisis on Tuesday, with human rights activists and the World Bank demanding action to curb soaring prices that are pushing an estimated 100 million people into hunger. The United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) initially called the summit at the end of last year to discuss the risks posed to food security by climate change. But soaring food prices have shifted the focus of the Rome summit. The cost of major food commodities has doubled over the last couple of years, with rice, corn and wheat at record highs. Some prices have hit their highest levels in 30 years in real terms -- provoking protests and riots in some developing countries, where people may spend more than half their income on food. Delegates will discuss a range of issues such as aid, trade and technology to improve farm yields, but hunger campaigners have singled out biofuels -- often made by converting food crops into fuel -- as a prime culprit. "Countries are justifying the pursuit of biofuels on the grounds that they offer a means to reduce emissions from transport and improve energy security," the campaign group Oxfam said in a report issued on Tuesday. "But there is mounting scientific evidence that biofuel mandates (policy support) are actually accelerating climate change by driving the expansion of agriculture into critical habitats such as forests and wetlands." Even though the United States is channeling about a quarter of its maize crop into ethanol production by 2022, and the European Unions plans to get 10 percent of auto fuel from bio-energy by 2020, biofuel supporters say the effect on global food prices is small. U.S. Agriculture Secretary Ed Shafer said biofuels accounted for only around 3 percent of the total food price rise. Oxfam says the real impact is about 30 percent. World Bank chief Robert Zoellick said the issue should not be allowed to dominate the summit, although biofuels clearly competed with food production. However, he said Africa could benefit from sugar-based biofuel production, as Brazil has. The World Bank estimates that higher food prices are pushing 30 million Africans into poverty. Zoellick said African leaders wanted action, not words. "It would be unfortunate if (bio-energy) becomes the sole point of debate, because then we would not meet what poor countries tell me they want, which is resources for safety net programs, seeds and fertilizers, and export bans lifted," he told Reuters. Brazil, a pioneer in sugar-cane based biofuels, is set to defend them at the summit. Its foreign minister, Celso Amorim, said fair trade and the abolition of rich countries' subsidies to farmers were crucial issues for the summit.

Protecting places of global environmental importance such as the Great Barrier Reef and the Amazon rainforest from climate change will require reducing pressures like over-fishing, fertiliser pollution and land clearing, they said. Writing in the journal Science, an international team of researchers warned that localised issues, such as declining water quality from nutrient pollution or deforestation can exacerbate the effects of climatic extremes such as heat waves and droughts. "We show that managing local pressures can expand the safe operating space" for these ecosystems, they wrote. "Poor local management makes an ecosystem less tolerant to climate change and erodes its capacity to keep functioning effectively," said the study's lead author Marten Scheffer from the Wageningen University, the Netherlands. The authors examined three Unesco World Heritage Sites -- Spain's Donana wetlands, the Amazon rainforest and the Great Barrier Reef. While many ecosystems are important to their local people, these ecosystems have a global importance too, hence their designation as World Heritage Sites. For instance, the Amazon rainforest is a globally important climate regulator. Like coral reefs, rainforests and wetlands around the world, these sites are all under increasing pressure from both climate change and local threats. For example, the Donana wetlands in southern Spain are Europe's most important wintering site for waterfowl, hosting over half a million birds and home to numerous unique invertebrate and plant species. A warming climate could encourage more severe blooms, causing losses of native plants and animals, say the researchers. "Local managers could lessen this risk and therefore boost the wetlands' climate resilience by reducing nutrient runoff," said co-author Andy Green from the Donana Biological Station. He added that nutrient control measures could include reducing fertiliser use, improving water treatment plants and closing illegal wells that are decreasing inputs of clean water to the wetlands. "Local management options are well understood and not too expensive," said Scheffer.

Nonprofit group the Union of Concerned Scientists analyzed 18 military installations that represent more than 120 coastal bases nationwide to weigh the impact of climate change on their operations. Faster rates of sea level rises in the second half of this century could mean that tidal flooding will become a daily occurrence for some installations, pushing useable land needed for military training and testing into tidal zones, said the report titled "The US Military on the Front Lines of Rising Seas." By 2050, most of these sites will be hit by more than 10 times the number of floods than at present, the report said, and at least half of them will experience daily floods. Four of those - including the Naval Air Station in Key West, Florida, and the Marine Corps recruit depot in South Carolina - could lose between 75 and 95 percent of their land in this century. The report said the Pentagon already recognizes the threat of climate change on its military installations but warned that more resources and monitoring systems are needed to boost preparedness. But last month, the US House appropriations committee passed an amendment that blocked funding for the Pentagon's climate adaptation strategy. "Our defense leadership has a special responsibility to protect the sites that hundreds of thousands of Americans depend on for their livelihoods and millions depend on for national security," the report said.

A month later, Islam still has not repaired the wall because of a high tidal-wave alert issued for later this week. "How many times can I fix a broken house?" he asked over the phone from his village in the heart of the low-lying Sundarbans delta in South 24 Parganas district of West Bengal state. "Let the high tide come and if there is no other disaster forecast, I will build the wall. I cannot afford to do it over and over again - the cyclones and tidal waves are relentless." Having a house with no walls has meant a much longer stay at an overcrowded relief centre for Islam's family, despite health concerns amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Schools in the region have doubled up as emergency shelters, with each classroom occupied by up to five families. People are sleeping on cloths spread on the ground, struggling to get clean drinking water and constantly worried about the crowded conditions, aid workers said. Being in the centre "is not like home", said Islam, adding there was no other choice. Life has been getting harder for thousands like him who live in the Sundarbans, a UN-designated biosphere reserve with one of the world's largest mangrove forests that has been ravaged over the years by storms, coastal erosion and shrinking land. Many of its islands lie below high-tide level, and the earthen embankments that protect homes and farms are frequently breached, resulting in mass evacuations. Siyad N, additional district magistrate for South 24 Parganas, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation 400,000 residents of the area were moved out of harm's way before Yaas hit. "Unlike in the past, when people would be able to go back home within a few days of the event, now many have been in camps for almost a month because the floodwaters have not receded in some parts," he explained. "We are concerned and are speeding up relief work." SAFE HOUSES In May 2020, Cyclone Amphan crashed into the Sundarbans with winds of 133 km (83 miles) per hour, bringing devastation. But just as people started rebuilding their homes after receiving compensation, Cyclone Yaas made landfall last month, uprooting them again. At Krishnachandrapur High School, principal Chandan Kumar Maiti has overseen the relief centre, locally known as a "safe house", for a month now, hosting more than 300 homeless people and causing classes to be suspended. "This time, the damage was more because of the nearly 2-metre high tidal waves that flooded homes and fields," he said. Aid workers and charities said families preferred to go back home, even if it meant erecting two bamboo poles, covering them with plastic and sleeping there in the wreckage. "It helps them keep an eye on their livestock and few belongings," said Manashi Das, founder of Dishari, a development charity that works in the Sundarbans. "But many have been forced to stay on in relief centres and others have camped on embankments, waiting for the water to recede and resources to rebuild," she added. Primary school teacher Kalyan Kumar Mahato and 13 colleagues are pooling aid to help the displaced on Kumirmari island. "Rebuilding homes and lives has become a very big challenge," he said, packing food parcels. After Yaas ruined their efforts again, "many villagers are putting off repairs, patching their homes with plastic sheets and newspaper instead," he added. The West Bengal government has initiated a "relief at your doorstep" campaign and is now verifying damage with a plan to start disbursing compensation soon, magistrate Siyad said. After Amphan, the government planted 50 million mangroves and a good number survived Yaas, he noted. Identified as a climate-change hotspot, cyclonic storms that form in the Bay of Bengal have become fiercer and more frequent, particularly in the last decade, as sea surface temperatures have warmed, according to researchers. Data from 1891-2010 showed a 26% rise in tropical storms in India's Sundarbans, researchers at New Delhi's Jamia Millia Islamia university found in a 2020 paper published in the Environment, Development and Sustainability journal. In a survey they conducted among 570 households in the Sundarbans, up to 60% in coastal villages said they would prefer to migrate because of extreme weather events. DASHED DREAMS Tanmoy Mondal dreams of starting his own travel agency in the delta. But for now, the 37-year-old migrant worker is putting in extra hours at a bag manufacturing unit in south India to help his father rebuild their storm-hit home. From his rented place in Mangalore in Karnataka state, he said by phone he had sent his father money to repair their house near the Sundarban Tiger Reserve after Amphan hit a year ago, and now needs to send more because of the damage done by Yaas. Most people rebuild in stages when they get government compensation instalments and many never manage to complete construction, aid workers said. "The houses are often unfinished structures that topple down when a cyclone comes," said teacher Mahato. The crisis has come at the worst time for people like Mondal and Islam - amid a coronavirus lockdown, job losses and warnings of more tidal activity. Both men said they did not remember such destruction in their childhoods. "The playground where we played as children is gone and there is nothing beautiful left in my village. Many of us have written to the government to save our village, our land and our homes," Islam said. Magistrate Siyad said residents of Ghoramara island are already moving to bigger islands like Sagar, but the cost is prohibitive for many. "I wish I could leave but have stopped dreaming about it because I have no money to move," Islam said. "I hope I can build a stronger wall around my house before I migrate to work outside the Sundarbans next month. I cannot leave my wife and two children in a house with no walls."

The interior minister, Mart Helme, 70, who is the leader of the far-right Estonian Conservative People’s Party, made the comment about Marin during a Sunday morning radio talk show as part of a larger tirade against the centre-left government of Finland, which he said was trying to destroy the country from within. “Now we can see that a sales girl has become prime minister and some other street activist and uneducated person has also become a member of the government,” Helme said, according to a translation from Finland’s state broadcaster YLE. He claimed that Finland was led by “Reds” who “are now desperately trying to liquidate Finland, making it a Euro-province.” Marin has spoken with pride about her working-class roots and about her rise from a low-income household to become the world’s youngest national leader. On Monday, she responded indirectly, on Twitter, to Helme’s comment. “I am extremely proud of Finland,” she wrote. “Here, a child from a poor family can get educated and achieve many things in their lives. The cashier of a shop can become a prime minister.” The insult drew an immediate response from others within the Estonian government, who scrambled to control the fallout. President Kersti Kaljulaid called her Finnish counterpart to apologise for the remarks Monday, according to the Finnish state broadcaster, and Prime Minister Juri Ratas of Estonia wrote on Facebook that he had called Marin to apologise. Finland and Estonia share close cultural and linguistic ties, and also share a common neighbour in Russia, whose influence they have worked to oppose in the region. Kaljulaid said in an interview with Postimees, an Estonian newspaper, that she felt Helme was a threat to the country’s security and feared his comments could alienate an important partner in the region. “All of this affects our security network,” she said. “The survival of a small country, especially in a geopolitically active region, depends very much on what kinds of partners and allies we have and how they see us, similar or different.” Ratas, who leads a centre-right coalition government, wrote in his Facebook post of the “shared respect and agreement” between the two nations. “We now need to put this behind us and move forward with important issues to the Estonian and Finnish governments, in our countries and in the European Union,” he added. Several members of the opposition called for Helme to step down from government and they attempted a vote of no confidence against the minister Tuesday, though the effort ultimately failed. “Mart Helme’s statements undermine Estonia’s international reputation,” Kaja Kallas, head of the Reform Party and leader of the opposition, said in a statement, according to the country’s state broadcaster. “And this is no longer an internal political fight, but rather a situation that is shaming Estonia in general,” she added. Helme offered his own apology of sorts, but maintained that his words were misinterpreted, the state broadcaster reported. “That specific sentence about the Finnish prime minister, which you have interpreted as demeaning,” Helme said to reporters after a government meeting Monday, “I have actually interpreted as complimentary — as recognition that someone can work their way up from a low social standing to the peak of politics.” Marin became the world’s youngest prime minister last week, when her Social Democratic Party chose her to head a coalition government led by women. Four of the five women serving in the top government posts, including Marin, are under 35. Marin was selected after a turbulent time that saw Prime Minister Antti Rinne resign over criticism from within the coalition of the handling of a postal workers’ strike. The shift in leadership thrust Marin into the international spotlight, but she has waved away the focus on her age and instead emphasised her policy plans. Rinne remains the leader of the Social Democratic Party of Finland, but Marin is expected to challenge him for the party leadership at its convention this summer. She first entered Parliament in 2015 and previously served as the minister of transport and communications. She is seen as left-leaning even within her party, with human rights, climate change and social welfare at the top of her political agenda. While many on the left have applauded her appointment to prime minister as a symbol of growing gender and age equity in Finnish politics, it comes at an especially polarised time in the country. In elections in April, the Social Democrats only narrowly edged out the right-wing, populist Finns Party. © 2019 New York Times News Service

President Barack Obama told Turkish and Mexican leaders on Saturday that WikiLeaks' actions were "deplorable" as the US administration kept up damage control efforts over the website's embarrassing release of masses of secret US cables. In Obama's separate calls with Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan and Mexican President Felipe Calderon, the leaders all agreed that WikiLeaks' campaign would not harm their countries' ties with Washington, the White House said. The leaks touching on US relations in virtually every part of the world have threatened to increase tensions with allies, spurring US officials to seek to prevent foreign friends from reducing engagement on sensitive matters. Documents relating to Turkey showed US diplomats casting doubt on the reliability of their NATO ally and portraying its leadership as divided. In Obama's call to Erdogan on Saturday, the two discussed "the enduring importance of the US-Turkish partnership and affirmed their commitment to work together on a broad range of issues," the White House said. "The president expressed his regrets for the deplorable action by WikiLeaks and the two leaders agreed that it will not influence or disrupt the close cooperation between the United States and Turkey," it said. Obama made similar comments to Calderon, which the US leader used to praise his Mexican counterpart for the outcome of an international climate change conference in Cancun. "The presidents also underscored the importance of the US-Mexico partnership across a broad range of issues," the White House said. "The presidents discussed the deplorable actions by WikiLeaks and agreed its irresponsible acts should not distract our two countries from our important cooperation." According to State Department documents made public by WikiLeaks, a top Mexican official said the government was in danger of losing control of parts of the country to powerful drug cartels.